Back on January 11th, 2011, I pressed the send button and registered for a marathon.  (“That’s 26.2 miles,” she says with clenched teeth and pit in stomach as she types this.)

January 11th, 2011 was, like, decades ago… and back then May 1st was decades away.  Right?

Wrong.

The days have been coming and going and February and March-ing along and now it’s April and May is just around the corner and do I sound like I’m panicking right about now?

Right.

It’s not that I haven’t been following my trusty Hal Higdon Novice 1 Marathon Training Schedule.

I have been.  See?

See all the colorful little dates and circles and checks and arrows and cross-offs?  Those are what my days have been like.  (The colors, by the way, mean nothing in particular… they’re the color marker I happened to grab that day.)

The circles, on the other hand, are the days I was sick with a bout of bronchitis or the most horrid stomach flu to hit me in forever… or the days I was caring for my 85-year old Mom or my sick little grandbabies.  I managed to run at least 3 of the 4 runs per week, but was never able to do any cross training, like walking, biking or swimming.  Although I love swimming at our local YMCA, this winter knocked my socks off in terms of getting to the pool and I just can’t imagine doing a spin class.

Most of my winter runs were frigid, breath-stealing runs.  And although I’m used to running right out my back door and going, this blizzardy, sidewalk-closed, snow-banky New England winter forced me to drive my car to a local park and try to get my miles in.  I mostly ran in circles… literally.  On one memorable 10-mile run in February, I ran the same 1/3 mile loop more times than I care to remember!

I remember at one point thinking did I just do 10 or 11 loops? Argh…. gotta do one more, just in case.

So here I am, sitting at my computer on my big REST DAY for my 20 miles tomorrow.  I am fah-reaking out.  Yes, I have run 12, 14, 16 then 18 mile runs… but not particularly pretty ones.  I’ve been either too hot or too cold, too hungry or too full, too encumbered with fuel or not encumbered enough… and more than once my iPod ran out of charge.

What?!  This New England gal downright counts on all those country songs to keep me moving up those insurmountable mountains!

So here I sit.  3 weeks, 3 days, 1 long, long, long 20-mile run, 11 shorter runs and a charged iPod from my dream of finishing a marathon.

Yep.  That’s 26.2 miles.

Thanks for allowing me to officially freak out.

I’ll get back to ya… even if I have to crawl to my computer after my 20 tomorrow.