I Did It...

On Friday I registered C and I for our half marathon*. It's not that this is my first race - that was in February - but there is something that seems to happen when a race is paid for. I have to say that this simple task makes it much more "real". It's no longer intangible. It's no longer a maybe. I went from thinking "Sure, I'll be running on 27 June" to "(Oh crap) I'll be running on 27 June." Not much of a difference there, but many of you (and especially if you are a runner) know what I mean. Now there is something to PLAN for. Not that I haven't been planning already - I'm halfway through my training program and, let me tell you, I haven't been doing hill repeats for fun.

But now I have to think of other things:

• SHOES: Will my running shoes hold out until after the race? In reality, probably not. I have a 3 week overlap with my marathon clinic so I'll have a lot of extra mileage on them. They are already well broken in and I'm pretty sure that the next 9 weeks of training just might kill them or my knees if they go. I'd love for them to last a little longer since my work, a large Canadian sporting goods retailer, will be carrying my shoes in my size (finally), but they aren't coming in until August.
• FUELING: I need to make sure all the things I like to eat/drink like me in return. So far so good with GU (mmm, mint chocolate) and Ultima lemonade. I just recently found out that cheap Zellers arrowroot cookies love me immediately before a run. Not hugely healthy, but great for shorter runs. Now to find something that loves me prior to my long runs as right now I have to eat 2+ hours before going out.
• WATER: Seems simple, but I really have to work on this. And by "this" I mean actually drinking plain water. I hate it. C makes fun of me for it, but I can't stand the non-taste of water. I think it's boring and it does a great disservice to my already miniscule bladder. However, I have to get on top of this since my run is in the summer and so is all my marathon training. I'd have to be pretty dumb not to learn to love water.
• BABYSITTING: Both C and I will be running the half so we'll have to find somewhere for M to go. We have awesome family and friends who are usually more than willing to offer to help us. However, this one might mean doing something BIG in return. Here's why: the race starts at 7am. The organizers suggest being there about 1 hour prior for parking, etc. and it's a 45 minute drive there. You do the math as to how early that is! To any of our regular, reliable babysitters: we'll talk (or beg; or grovel; or do a drop and run). Addendum: My wonderful sister-in-law emailed me on facebook right after I posted this and kindly offered to either take M overnight or come to our house really early! THANK YOU!!! I'm pretty sure that one of these days I'll have her 2 kids dropped on my doorstep and I won't see her and my brother-in-law for a week...

So this is what I've been thinking about this week. As for what I've been doing I've had a pretty productive 9 days. Two really good long runs (12km and 14km) have bookended my week. Bootcamp was great and didn't hurt me this time around although the rain never let up once during the whole hour. My other runs this week were on pace and I felt great for not slacking off.

All in all it's been a pretty decent start to the month.

*Originally I was going to register for the marathon too in order to save a few bucks due to the incoming, and much loathed, HST (harmonized sales tax), but that went by the wayside since it meant adding another couple hundred dollars to the credit card.