The Hurricane and the Half-Marathon

True, we in Illinois are only getting the remnants of a tropical storm, but I do really have a half-marathon tomorrow morning. I tell you, if the after effects of a hurricane are this bad in Chicago, I can't fathom how bad it must be for those of you who live where they strike first. My hat's off to you and my prayers are with you.

Tomorrow at 7:30 AM I will be running in the Banco Popular Chicago Half-Marathon. Right now, the weather looks like it'll be a big factor in how well anyone runs tomorrow. I don't foresee the rain to be as big of a problem as the humidity. I have a hard time breathing out there just walking around, let alone running a race! Still, it could improve by the time the race starts tomorrow and I must remind myself again that I am simply trying to finish another long run. I just want to run a 10:30 for the entire time to see what that feels like under race conditions. Maybe, maybe, maybe I'll bump it up for the last mile or so, but I really hope to not get ahead of myself tomorrow. I hope to be able to once again chronicle the day in photos, but we'll see how that goes with the weather the way it is now. A few of the girls and I will be catching a taxi together to get down to the race start, since it's in an odd location. You might say, "hey...you live in a city with public transportation, why are you contributing to global warming????" Well, considering the weather and how far away the nearest transport is, we're using the damn taxi so suck it.

I'd also like to get as much sleep as possible and if I was dependent upon the trains and buses here, I'd have to leave for the race at 5 AM. Hell to the NO.

As always, at this moment I am indulging in my favourite pre-race rituals of eating pasta and watching Chariots of Fire. I love this...I can't even explain how content I am when I'm eating and watching a movie. This is my inner fat kid speaking. But this time, I eat good things! So, maybe it's my inner Foodie speaking? They just don't make movies like Chariots anymore. What a cool story...and we sort of had a return of it in a way with Ryan Hall running the marathon during these past Olympic Games.

So stay tuned for my post-race report sometime tomorrow. Hopefully it will be blissfully consistent and boring, ending with me crossing the finish line somewhere between 2 hours, 20 minutes and 2 hours, 15 minutes. Fingers Crossed.

And I apologize for my sporadic posting this week...work has been exceedingly busy and I hadn't slept well at all since last Saturday. I'm better now, thanks, so stay with me now!