Express train to Weenieville

Tonight was officially my last group run before the marathon. I’ve been training with these people since July (a few since January, for the half Pig), and it’s hard to believe I won’t be seeing them twice a week anymore. Some of these runners have become close friends and some I don’t even know their names. Regardless, we have run together before dawn on Saturday mornings, cheered each other through training milestones, and bitched endlessly about nothing and everything over the hundreds of miles we trekked. So tonight was bittersweet – awesome that we’ve come so far and sad that I might never see some of these guys again.

This was actually my first run with the group in a few weeks, thanks to work, travel, and my own inability to get out of bed on Saturday mornings lately. I was pumped to see everyone and catch up with my running buddy. In fact, I was so caught up in chatting with her that I ran a little bit too fast for what was supposed to be an easy run. I ended up doing a 7:42/mile pace for our 4.3 miler. Oopsies. Oh, and we almost got hit by a delivery truck. But that’s another story. :-)

Everyone in the group was talking about pace for Sunday, but I’m still planning to take it slow. And ever since I decided to throw the 4 hour finish time out the window, I have been SO much more excited about the race, even though I feel somewhat like a punk. We’ll see what happens I guess.

Although, according to the “Photo Awareness” Power Point deck our coach** sent us this afternoon, 90% of people I talk to post-race won’t care about my finish time! Who knew that how you do in the race is not important compared to how you look in the finish PHOTOS. In fact, the SLOWER you run, the better chance you have of:

- Making 26.2 miles look effortless (think of the legacy you'll leave for your children/grandchildren)

- Not looking like a weenie

- Getting dates on Match.com (profiles with pictures get 15 times more attention – unless you’re ugly!)

These are actual tips, I am not making this up. If I were more Internet savvy I would embed a link to this presentation in my blog. The whole thing was lost on me, as I am just not hardcore enough to care, at all, how I look in my race photos. Seriously, if some poor photographer does happen to catch me on marathon course, I'll be the cross-eyed hunchback of Notre Dame with her hat pulled over her face. Save me a seat on the express train to Weenieville. Actually never mind, I might be the driver.


**Please note that my coach is a highly credible marathoner/triathlete/duathlete and has kicked my butt all summer with an amazing, grueling marathon training program. I really, really do respect him but this Power Point was just silly to me.