Thursday I got a tattoo I have wanted to get for a long time and will add red hearts every time I do a marathon so that it links up with my ankle one.
Saturday I got all my clothes, water belts, gel stock, hair bands, watch and music ready to go. I love preparing all my stuff and laying it out in the spare room. You never realize how much stuff you need in order to be successful and I am a bit of a freak when it comes to being organized. 
Lish, Lindsay and the rest of the BA crew have chatted about our schedule so I made up the 19 week training plan and put it on the fridge. It is based on the Running Room schedule with some modifications. First of all, we are starting out doing 14k and add 1k each week instead of the suggested 10 10 13 13 16 16. We knew we could start out longer but move up more slowly. We have also built in a race in August - Midsummer's Nights race http://www.amidsummernightsrun.ca/. It is a 30km in Toronto and fits perfectly into our schedule. The other ladies ran it last year and loved it so I am looking forward to it helping with our preparation. Also, we are all on the MS Rona bike team with a 2 day bike race in July. The cross training on Thursdays and Saturdays will be a huge benefit too. 
Remember my blog post setting my goals for the 2011 marathon?
Below is the list I made so I could take 43 minutes off my time in order to run a 5:45 marathon (I am going to be 43 years old too on race day). I am happy to say that many are underway to being accomplished or done already including buying a new Garmin (I lost my first one in July on a plane to Seattle :( expensive lesson learned)
- don't freak out about the hot weather - "suck it up sweetheart"
- drop 14 pounds - don't know what I weigh but it is less than last year
- see a podiatrist about my foot pain - done and have the orthotics
- learn to run faster - done already have taken 7 minutes off my 10ks and my average pace is way faster
- don't high-five so many people - race day plan
- run in the middle of the road - race day plan - worked well in last races
- run more to practice no more 10:1s - done only 10:1ing on Sundays during long runs
- only walk the water stations - race day plan
- less sightseeing - race day plan
- take Cold FX so I don't get sick the week of the race - race week plan
- carry 2 more gels for energy - race day plan
Having the Garmin, more race experience and a positive attitude is really going to give me more success.
What I also am so happy about is my goal race pace. I ran a 7:22 at the last race and my Sunday long runs are about 8:15, I was faster than that yesterday for our 14k. Running long distance is so mental and knowing that having great friends, experience and a solid training regime will get me my goal time.
Screw the cancer!!!!!
