Half Marathon Eve

And so here we are, less than 13.5 hours away from the Baltimore Half Marathon. A few brief thoughts:

1. I'm woefully undertrained for this race but I'm a mixture of both OK and unsettled with that. I mean, it's too bad I'm not in danger of setting a new PR, but sometimes a hobby is just that and you have to prioritize when other more important things demand abnormal amounts of attention and energy.

2. I am not a team runner. As I posted in previously, my company is a sponsor of the running festival and so I got to sign up for the half for free, saving me a cool $70 in the process. Unlike last year, this year our corporate communications department wanted to make this a morale boosting exercise. They gave us new Under Armour running shirts that we can wear in the race tomorrow, which was really awesome and far in excess of what I expected. They're red with the "company team" logo (I didn't know we had a company team, but apparently we're the Falcons because a falcon has a nest on top of the skyscraper) on the front and the corporate logo on the back, etc. But they also wanted all the sponsored runners to pose in their shirts for a picture yesterday around 4:45. I wasn't feeling that so much and just chose not to show up for the picture. I feel kind of bad about it, but not enough to do anything about it. I like running, but I prefer to do it by myself. I don't know; I'm weird.

3. I am nervous about the race, per usual, but will try to view it as a training run in preparation for my PR attempt of the season: Richmond. Richmond is a flat course and it'll be much cooler in November than it's going to be tomorrow. That should translate, all else being equal, to a better time.

4. To PR in Richmond, I must train better. I love the Baltimore Running Festival. Nothing is better than walking out my door and being at a world class race in 30 minutes. However, this year it just didn't pan out that I could make this the centerpiece of my racing season. Which is OK, actually. I'll have a great time tomorrow and this will be a nice step in my training for Richmond. In reality, deep down I wanted to make Richmond the main goal this year anyway, since it's on my birthday and it's several weeks after the wedding and honeymoon, which should mean less stress and distraction. This should also mean I can concentrate more on training properly.

5. I must train more CONSISTENTLY. Can't say this enough. I need to really try hard to get my ass out of bed in the morning to get my runs in and create a routine that makes that if not easier, than at least a little more bearable.

And with that, I'm off to plan my routine tomorrow and lay out my race clothes.

Go Falcons.