5 weeks down, 11 more to go!

With 5 weeks of "official" training and fundraising down and 11 weeks left until race day, this is where things start to get interesting. The excitement of starting the training cycle is beginning to wear off. Waking at 4am for a 8-10 mile training run is feeling a bit harder. My body is significantly stronger than it was after the Philadelphia Half-Marathon in November but this is the part of training where it starts to warn you about the dangers of over-training. A sniffle here, a tight calf muscle there - these are the things any runner starts to pay attention to in training. A delicate balance as my grandmother would say. I realized after my run that one of the things that helps me win the mental game is regular check-ins, blog comments, facebook wall postings, and donations with fun messages from friends, family, co-workers and complete strangers who have heard about my run from others.

In the past week, I have bounced back from a cold to nail all 3 of my running workouts plus 3 days of intense cross-training. I did mile repeats on the track this past Friday and am growing to enjoy to track (much to my surprise). The marathon course was packed with runners on Sunday morning! There was a strong 18 mile per hour headwind heading outbound from Brookline and it was fairly cold. The return trip up and over the Newton hills was warmer with no wind. I managed a quick pace through the hills with a focus on the mental images I need on race day - strong stride, good arm movement, relaxed shoulders. Overall, a great 13.1 mile run at 9:15 pace!

There is a mental game for fundraising at this point as well. I have raised $3194 to date - just over 30% of my goal. I am excited and grateful to everyone who has contributed. A good friend is hosting a dinner party fundraiser this weekend and it is sure to be a great time! I need to begin focusing my energy on getting fundraising letters out and pulling together an event here in Boston. My 34th birthday is just a few weeks before race day and I would like nothing better than to hold an event raising $3400 to celebrate.