3 Days Until Grandma's Marathon!

Three possible outfits for Grandma’s this weekend. If you are watching the race, look for me in one of these 3 tops:

1. Tight blue top and grey shorts:

2. Grey top and grey shorts:

3. No top and no grey shorts:

I’ll go out with one of the shirts on. But, most likely, I’ll end up running the last half with my shirt off. The blue top is more “technical,” and the grey top is just cotton. But I’ve done the majority of my long runs in that cotton top, and it works well (once it’s taken off) as a face-sweat-wiper. So I don’t know what I’ll put on when it comes to race morning. But the grey shorts will be there fo shizzle.

Hey, let’s see that last image again. Allow me to highlight the three main areas that I’ll be lubing up real well this weekend:

1. Behind my armpits: I rubbed there a little on my last 17.5 miler.

2. My feet: I’ve lubed up those puppies on all of my 10+ mile runs for the past 2-3 months, and it helps A LOT. It keeps those small blister and hot-spots at bay.

3. My danger-zone: (AKA my man-region, my bishop, my Pink Floyd, my beef-bus, my coin slot, etc, etc.) I don’t want anything there to chafe off. I plan to use about half the stick of Body Glide down there. I’ll just smear it all in. Mostly in the butt-cheek territory.

Also, I’ve got my marathon plan nearly set in stone. I have specific, individual splits every mile. They start slow and build a little. When I first typed it up, I was going just by what I figured I could do. When I got done, it all added up to 3:04:25. And that’s under my biggest goal of breaking 3:10. (For how much I’ve talked about my projected finishing time, can you tell that I don’t believe in “jinxing” myself?) I plan to print out those splits, tape them to a wristband, and wear that one yellow wristband covered in splits during the race. I’ll be able to see where I’m at with respect to where I think I should be at every mile. (Oh, so if you’re a spectator at Grandma’s, you could probably find me pretty easily by looking for the one yellow wristband that has 27 times printed out and taped to it. Oh, and I will be wearing my contacts, not my glasses.)

Here’s the kicker: IF I’m having a great day, I MIGHT be able to take an extra 10 seconds off each mile (and the last 0.2). That would make my finishing time a remarkable 2:59:55. In case you’re dense, that’s sub 3:00. If only...