ONE Month Til The Chicago Marathon!

Happy Friday the 13th!  My unlucky happening of the day so far is that I missed the train by about 1.6 seconds.  But the next one came almost right away AND I got a seat, so I think that's pretty lucky.

And then I got to work and my director had made these for everyone:

I'm not sure whether is was a cupcake or a muffin, but I'm gonna go ahead and call it a muffin since I ate it at 8:30am.  A muffin with frosting.  And coffee in my UD Alumni mug, per usual.  Sometimes I wake up in the morning and declare that it's going to be a healthy eating day (actually I say that every day), and then things like this happen and I decide it's OK because it's Friday and I'm running 20 miles this weekend.  I need to really work on my nutrition though.

Even more important than it being Friday the 13th - Happy 1 Month til the Chicago Marathon!!

This morning, I texted about 10 people I know running the marathon with a reminder that we are 1 month away.  The responses I received were all over the board.

Most Excited goes to Angela: "OMG I can't believe it!!  Happy Friday!  I hope it's a good one!"
Least Excited goes to Mac: "ugh don't remind me"
Favorite Response: Marisa sent a bunch of the unhappy/nervous looking emojis.

I'd say the general feeling is one of nervousness and being under-trained.  Does anyone actually ever feel prepared for a marathon?  I would think not because how can you ever feel ready for something like that?  I am definitely excited for it, but also nervous that something will go wrong.

The weather today would be absolute perfection for the marathon.

I did another 7 mile run last night in the exact same time as I did my run the night before.  It wasn't my intention to go any faster than 8 minute pace and I wanted to do 10 miles.

After a mile on lakefront path, looked down at the Garmin and was surprised by how fast I was going without even thinking that I had picked up the pace.  I was feeling good so I decided to go with it.  But then, at 3.5 miles, I turned back around to head north and right away I could tell why it was so easy heading south and that it was NOT going to be easy getting back north.  Such strong wind.

8:04, 7:24, 7:22, 7:35, 7:47, 8:03, 8:02

So despite the times being slower when I came back north, I'm pretty sure it was a consistent effort the whole run.  I'm also glad I did not get blown away into the lake.

I stopped to take some pictures because it looked really cool.  One wave came up and drenched my legs all the way up to my shorts.  So the remainder of the run was in soaking wet shoes and socks.  When I started, I thought about how wonderful fall weather is for running.  But then that wind really killed my excitement for fall.

Are you having a particularly lucky or unlucky day today?

How do you know if you are ready for a marathon?  Or any race?