This is probably the last post before the big day.  I'm sitting in the San Diego airport waiting for my plane to San Francisco.  It's windy and raining there, which I'm hoping will go away by Sunday!  I did the three miles on Saturday at 1:3 intervals and it was totally ok.  But my coach suggested I stick with 1:4 at the event.  With the hills and everything, she thinks I will really suffer if I try the 1:3.  She also said I will move faster just because of all the adrenaline and such.  I think she overestimates my ability to walk faster.

My stomach has had butterflies since last night's "send off" party.  I don't really know why.  It's not like anyone is going to be watching me specifically in the throngs of people.  And I already know I will be well within the time cutoff to complete the race, so speed is not a scary factor.  I don't really know what's making me so nervous, but it's definitely there.  Fortunately I'll be in San Francisco for the next week at a conference so I'll have plenty of time to get adjusted to the city and the weather and (hopefully) lose some of these nerves!

I survived 10 miles!  I got my first real blisters and my feet still hurt - two days later.  But I did it.  I can honestly say that if this had been event day and I had to do another 3.1 miles I never would have been able to continue.  I finished my 10 miles, walked straight to my car and drove home.

They say a lot of distance running is a mental game and I never really believed "them".  But the more I do this the more I see it really is.  Physically, I can do 13.1 or 26.2 miles.  My feet will keep moving.  I will not fall over and die.  But my brain is a much stronger muscle.  And it is starting to get the better of me.

19 days to go.

Well I managed only 5 miles in Denver.  But that lack of oxygen is a bugger!!!  We also went on a hike with some friends on Friday and I managed to get my run in yesterday before it started raining.  So, all things considered, I'm pretty proud of myself.  This week I need to push myself hard, and Saturday is our "big run".  10 Miles through downtown San Antonio! I never thought I'd be considering that kind of distance.  Then next week we push hard and then I get to REST (meaning, only doing 2-3 miles/day instead of the 4-5 I do now) until the big day.  Less than a month to go!

Well it turns out we only have limited room on our TNT website, so I've moved here to continue the fascinating saga of my training.  I know you've all followed over faithfully to point, laugh, encourage, or whatever it is you're doing reading this.

Last week was our last run at La Cantera and I can't say I'm sorry to see it go.  I won't  miss those hills one bit.  We were doing half our distance so my goal was 6.55 miles.  I ended up pairing up with a woman I've met during training and she somehow convinced me that just wasn't far enough.  So we did 8 miles!!  I've been in a real funk the last few weeks, and I am hoping I've finally broken through that.  It felt so amazing to actually do 8 miles.  That's only 5 miles shy of my total distance, and I've done 5 miles several times already.  For the first time, I actually think I can do this.  Now the bad news.  We did 20 minutes miles, which is WAY WAY slow.  The race organizers would like us all to be doing at least 15 minute miles so I've got a lot of ground to make up in just a few weeks.  I'm now doing 60 minutes at least three days during the week.  Our dog is loving it, and I'm hoping the extra work will translate into speed on the long runs.  I mapped out a four mile trip so I can visually see how close I am getting before I turn around at 30 minutes.  Next week we move to a less hilly area.  Let's see if the hills really have impacted me that much.  I really hope so!