Thirteen Point One in Less Than Two

As I was leaving Yoga this morning at 9:30, I realized something:

In less than 48 hours, I will have completed a Half Marathon.

Whoa.

10 miles has been my longest run so far. On Sunday, I will run that again and THEN add a 5K onto the end of it. No big deal, right? *insert sarcasm*

Of course, I'm looking forward to getting my "13.1" sticker to slap on the back window of my truck. But what's surprising to me is how excited I am for the whole experience. I'm excited about the expo on Saturday, the people lining the streets at the race, the buildings, the bands, and yes: even the running itself - it's going to be incredible!

Since this is the "Rock 'n' Roll" Half Marathon (in Chicago), there will be different bands every mile or so playing all sorts of music - from Dixieland Jazz to Japanese Taiko to Rock. Usually, when running with a friend, I'll have one earbud in listening to whatever music I choose for the day. But I'm planning on leaving my earbuds in the hotel room and enjoying all the live entertainment.

I still have a bit of packing to do. Not that I need to bring much; we're only staying overnight. But one bag that is ready to go is the Snack Bag. Here's a little tidbit of info about me you might not know: I love to eat. I also seem to have developed an irrational fear of running out of food, so I'm always in charge of the Snack Bag and make sure it's STOCKED with enough food to feed an army. (You can see a list of Snack Bag items at the bottom of this post)

When you see a post like the one above on my FB timeline,
"Like" or comment and I'll get cheers!

If you're in the downtown Chicago area on Sunday, you can find us running in our Hope Water Project jerseys. Be sure to cheer us on or stop us before or after the race to say 'hi'. If we're 'friends' on Facebook, you can also "like" my status (see sample post to the right) on Sunday morning (race starts at 6:30am CST) and I'll get a 'cheer' from Nike as I'm running!

For those of you who have cheered me on via Facebook before - THANK YOU! You have no idea how motivating it can be to get a 'cheer' right when I feel like my feet are lead weights.

Weather for Thursday's "Hard Run"

In training news...

Yesterday's "hard run" was hot and HUMID. You can see the screen shot I took of the weather after we finished. We ran around 9pm since it had cooled down from earlier, but that 98% humidity is NO JOKE.

Friday's are 'rest days', but I decided to get my butt back into a Yoga class today and, boy am I glad I did! I forgot how much I love Yoga. It's such a great stretch!

Thanks for stopping by to check in today. If I get a chance and remember to, I'll trying posting from Chicago before the race.

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If you're curious to see how crazy I am about food supply, our Snack Bag consists of:

• Low Calorie Gatorade
• Chewy Granola Bars
• Crunchy Granola Bars
• Nutrigrain Bars
• Whole Wheat Bagel Thins & Peanut Butter (my  breakfast of choice for long runs)
• Reduced Fat Cheezits (a fave of Duane's)
• Reduced Fat Wheat Thins (a fave of mine)
• Saltine Crackers
• Pretzel Minis
• Apple Cinnamon Rice Cakes
• Orville Redenbacher's Pop Crunch
• 32-pack of water (okay, so this doesn't fit in the bag)
• Ritz Crackers
• Oatmeal (Duane's breakfast of choice for long runs)
• Shot Bloks (our energy chews for the race)

...and I'm sure a couple more items will be put it last minute.

Remember, we're staying OVERNIGHT and will be having meals at restaurants. This is just for snacking. A bit overboard? Maybe. But I know that I won't be hungry (and neither will anyone else... in Chicago. LOL).