I’m a Gross

Tomorrow my friend and I are running a marathon.   I think this is the sixth marathon race we’ve run, but it will be the most difficult one we’ve done yet.   The course itself is what makes the race challenging.  We’re trained up for it and have even run the marathon distance, going through most of the sections of the race path we’ll be following tomorrow.

The reason this particular marathon will be more challenging is the terrain.   There is a lot of elevation change.   That doesn’t particularly bother us because it’s our “home course” in so far as it’s in the park across the street from our neighborhood where we run all the time.   There are sections of the race we’ve run for years, and we shouldn’t have too much trouble with them.    There are other sections that we don’t know as well.

The most difficult part, okay wait, there are several difficult parts, so let me say the most “challenging” will be the over six miles of single track trail.   These are little one-person wide trails through the woods where sometimes you have to look for the next blue triangle nailed to a tree ahead to figure out where to go next.

That part will be done with early on in the race.   We have the fun of running what I named, “the hateful route” not once, but twice, with its switch backs and extreme elevation changes after the first half of the race is completed.

Then, right before the end, we go from one of the highest points in the race elevation-wise downhill to a creek.   When we get to that low point, we run all the way back up the path to the top and are at probably close to mile twenty-four.    From that point on, there is only one more real obstacle, something I named “the vista” years ago.     It’s a mean little hill that for some reason is psychologically more challenging than other inclines of similar distance and pitch.   I think it’s because it’s a straight path and there are no corners to visually block how far you’re going to be running uphill and your brain just starts telling you, “no way, I can’t do that hill.”

After the vista, we’re nearly flat until the finish line.   I’m looking forward to tomorrow tinged with a bit of anxiety.   I just hope I don’t fall down and concuss myself on one of the big roots or rocks.   That would be embarrassing.

Oh, and about that blog post title…my bib number is 144.

The Big Boy Update:  Lately my son describes things two ways:  “that’s so epic” and “that’s so boredom”.   Today he was looking at Legos in the toy store and I said, “hey, look at this bake shop Lego set”   That particular set and the ones in that area were all in pink and clearly targeted at girls.   But hey, I wanted my little guy to have an opportunity to consider something other than the knights and warriors types of sets he is always drawn to.   He looked at me and said, “that is boredom.  I don’t like girly stuff.”

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter and son had an altercation that involved bodily contact on the stairs just before dinner.   My son stormed away mad and my daughter remained on the stairs crying.   I talked to both of them.   I suggested they come to their seats because their dinner was ready.   I suggested to my daughter that she needed to try and stop crying.   As she came down the stairs she said, “I hope dinner helps me calm down.”  (It did.)