Six Days and a Crazy Dream

Yup. I have six (6) days left until my marathon. Well, it's on the 6th day. Sunday. THIS Sunday.

I am trying to not think about it. I figure if I'm neutral about it I won't freak out. So I'm working very hard to be neither excited nor anxious. Ask me again in a couple of days how I feel and I'll probably be both, but there's no point in getting worked up about it yet. I'm sure it will hit me Saturday morning when I get on the ferry and discover there's no way out of what I'm planning to do...

The only thing I'm a little excited about is that I have my bib number - #120. I won't be the 120th person across the finish line, but that's okay. As long as I'm not DFL I'll be happy!

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I've heard of taper madness, but I don't think I've ever experienced it until 2 nights ago. What I know is that I've never had a running related dream before and since I am in the run-up to my marathon I feel all right attributing it to the taper. That, or it was catching up on running blogs while eating a warm bowl of apple crisp at 11pm.

Here's my dream (at least what I can remember):

I arrived at the race site - pretty sure it wasn't Victoria - and found a place to wait for the start. After a while we were told to go wait in a McDonald's, but eventually we were fairly certain that no one was coming to get us. I wandered around until I found a race official and was blamed for listening to the first person as we were not supposed to leave the original location. Not only were we in the wrong spot, but the race had started already - like an HOUR ago!

Even though I had been waiting around I was not prepared for the race. I didn't have my heart-rate monitor or my backpack on. I didn't even have my socks! When I asked for help finding my socks I was handed a mismatched pair (one running sock, one regular). I complained that I was looking for my Injinji socks at which time the person helping me yelled that I could do it myself. Helpful! Eventually I found a matching black pair. I don't wear black socks, but in my dreams I apparently do.

Once I was kitted out I had to get my timing chip. You'd think it would go on my shoe, but it was actually a little puffy sticker of a crab that stuck to my leg and went under a sleeve on my ankle. I had no idea how to attach it so some random stranger guy helped me out. Since I was glad to have had the help I insisted that I get his email so I could thank him again after the race and let him know how I did. Finally I was ready to race.

So I thought. Because I was starting an hour late I had to start with the relay support vehicles. The vans pulled out of the way so that I could cross the timing mats. I went to run across, but was told I was doing it wrong and there was a specific way to do it. I was supposed to run slowly across it, but not bounce. Kind of like a Baywatch run - in slow-mo.

Once on the course I found that it was very dark with almost no street lights. There were also no bathrooms. The route wasn't clearly marked, but I did find a cafe in the middle to stop at for muffins. Eventually I crossed the finish line to find out my time was at least an hour and a half more than my goal time... not including the late start.

So that's what my subconscious thinks about my marathon training. I have no idea what it means. I am either going to have a rotten race or an awesome race. If you have any interpretations please let me know!