Lawyerish: Ready or Not

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After work today, I'll go to the Javits Center and pick up my race number, my commemorative t-shirt, my chip, and my pace bracelet. On Saturday, I will finalize my iPod playlist (mostly courtesy of Guinness Girl) and lay out my race day clothes, BodyGlide (to prevent chafing, you pervs), shoes, running watch, iPod, gels, gummy bears and warm-up gear. I'll also write out all of your thought suggestions/requests (there's still time if you've got more!) on my pace bracelet.

Then I will sit on my butt and watch "Felicity" until dinnertime while my husband runs our weekly errands and cleans our apartment. (Have I mentioned how amazing he is, how immensely supportive, and how I couldn't do anything I do in life -- including get out of bed in the morning, let alone run a marathon -- without him? And he's like this ALL the time, not just when I'm doing something absurd and incapacitating myself ON PURPOSE. I may make some quirky and sometimes just plain dumb choices in life, but choosing a mate? I did good.)

Ahem. Anyway.

Around 7pm, I will choke down some bland, uneventful pasta with bland, uneventful chicken (one doesn't want to surprise the stomach on such an occasion -- this is not the night for lamb vindaloo). And I'll go to bed super-early, although undoubtedly I'll half-sleep with one eye on the clock, living in fear as I always do the night before something big that my alarm won't go off.

I realized today (thanks to the big "F" in front of my race number, which I somehow neglected to notice til now -- you know what they love about me? detail oriented) that I'll be starting the race in a super-special corral of the fastest 9,000 women in the field. Which doesn't mean much, and isn't really all that super-special, since that's practically every woman in the race, but it's cool because we'll be starting right behind the sub-elite women, and -- better yet -- there are NO MEN ALLOWED in our all estrogen, all the time corral. Nyah! (Not that I have anything against men; I just like feeling exclusive.) Practically speaking, this doesn't mean much, except that we'll be at the very front of the pack (as "at the very front" as almost 10,000 people can be, anyway), so possibly I'll have to run 100 yards less than I did last year, when I was wayyyyy at the back. So: whoop-de-doo. Bah.

And GOD, by now you must all be thinking, will this thing hurry up and be over so we don't have to hear about the damn marathon anymore? To that: yes! Yes. It will be over soon, very soon! I'll give you some recappy love on Monday to tell you about how I emitted positive vibes in your direction (or at least some really, really strong B.O.) and/or how I got a boost from your fabulous thoughts along the course, and undoubtedly how, at some point, even though I wanted to curl up in a ball and be rolled home, I kept going because I was thinking of all the amazing people out there in the ether -- that's YOU, y'all! -- who have expressed their support for me, and who make me feel like We Are All One (we aaaaaaaaaaare the chiiiildren), thanks to this crazy techno-wonderland of the Internets.

Comments

Is it sad that I am super-excited for you? Or is it just sad that I actually used the word "super-excited"?

I will be thinking positive thoughts for you on Saturday!

Posted by: -R- | November 03, 2006 at 12:01 AM

I will be SO rooting for you from out here in Arizona.

For years, we lived on 83rd Street, right off CPS, and my very favorite time of year (even better than going to see the Thanksgiving parade balloons) was crossing the park to the East Side to watch the runners as they came up that slowly sloping hill that hits around 81st Street. You know, when they look like they're about to die.

But none of them die. And neither will you. And you will have (yet again!) done something really, truly awe-inspiring.

Posted by: Martha | November 03, 2006 at 12:45 AM

Oops. I meant CPW. Just ask your hubby.

Posted by: Martha | November 03, 2006 at 12:46 AM

GAH. I am still, still in awe of you. Running. A marathon. Did you know that I can't run more than 1/10 of a mile? It's true.

Uh, stop laughing. I was being serious.

Yesterday morning I was watching the weather channel, and they mentioned that the weather would be clear, albeit cold, in NYC for the marathon, and that nearly 37,000 runners were participating.

And I sat in bed, all warm and cozy and non-exercising, marveling that I know ("know" is a relative term) one of those 37,000.

Posted by: jes | November 03, 2006 at 08:22 AM

I told you, I think about this all the time. I think about you running a damn marathon and then I faint. I cannot WAIT to offer all sorts of really focused vibes on Sunday.

Posted by: jonniker | November 03, 2006 at 08:43 AM