Let's do this thing!

As said by Linguini in the movie, "Ratatouille" when he's ready to cook with Remy...can you hear it? "Look, I know it's stupid and weird, but neither of us can do this alone, so we got to do it together, right? You with me? So let's do this thing!"

That's how I feel about Bloomsday, and more specificallly the hill lovingly referred to as "Doomsday" hill. I'm as ready now as I'll ever be for it, I think. My running buddies and I ran today--half of us did 6 miles, the other half did 7 miles--all of us did the hills around our house, including a one mile long one that wants only to be Doomsday. It was torturous and I felt like throwing up but I did it. We didn't stop and we didn't walk, we ran the whole dang thing. And even better, we're all still alive to tell about it. That's two weeks in a row of this route and we're pumped that we can do it. We're gonna do it again next weekend, and then the weekend after that, well its the race. I can't believe it is so close, yikes! I get nervous just thinking about it--I've not ever run a race that is as big of a deal as this one. Running the half marathon is longer, sure, but its flat and it doesn't have over 50,000 runners. I walked Bloomsday once back in high school but that was so long ago its a miracle I even remember doing it, and besides walking is so different (for me) from running.

Even though I'm nervous, I feel ready. My running legs are in the best shape than they've ever been in and my lungs are too. And I'm grateful for my running buddies, they've been right there training with me and they are ready too. It's gonna be awesome to run with them. And its even awesomer (is that a word?) that two gals that are sort of new to my running group are doing it too. Neither have done a race this big or a distance this far. Today B ran the 6 mile hill route and it was her longest run ever and, honestly, she did awesome. I was so excited and proud of her. I love seeing women pushing themselves to push and realize how much they are capable of doing. It's so rewarding.

Oh, and that lovely pink camelbak? I am in love. I love it. I had water the whole time and it was wonderful. It tasted like plastic though, I would love advice on how to get rid of that! And I was able to carry my house key, phone and some powergel and the pak didn't bother me one little bit. I think next weeek I'll try putting my elekrolyte drink in there instead of water and forego the gel, it made me feel sick. I'm going to love that thing on longer runs, like when we start doing ten milers. Yay for new running gear that actually works! :0) I'm stoked and quite sweaty, time for a shower and a snack!