Waiting .... waiting .... waiting....

First off, thanks to everyone's suggestions about my Brooks in my last post. I've decided to do two short runs (my last two runs) this week (a 3 miler and 2 miler) and wear them both again individually before deciding to wear the mid-mileage pair or the newly broken in pair. I'll probably make a last minute decision, but all of your comments have helped me realize that 225 miles is NOT too many miles and in the end I'll be fine no matter which shoes I decide upon.

Last weekend we did an 8-miler in Gainesville. It was the last long run of the 18 week training schedule. It was easy and fun. Three of Jenny's good friends ran with us as we weaved in and out of Gainesville neighborhoods and the campus of The University of Florida. We set out just before sunrise and by the time we reached the 5 mile mark we stopped for water at the football stadium (a.k.a. The Swamp) and low and behold there is Urban Meyer right in front of us! One of the only long runs that I don't bring my camera and we literally run into Urban Meyer! He's just arriving and getting out of his car while talking on the phone. He looks at us, looks away, looks at us again, grabs his briefcase, and then looks at us again before walking into the stadium. I yell to him, "Go Gators," as he walks away. I ponder why he gave us the strange look for the rest of the run. He had to be looking at us as we were the only people around. Then I realized how odd we must have looked; myself and 4 girls all older than college aged kids. I'm 6'7" tall and one of the girls is less than 5 feet tall. Plus, we probably seemed to come running up from no where. He was probably thinking something like, "oh crap, what are these people going to want?" Maybe the strange look was him being perplexed that we pretty much ignored him and headed for the water fountain. Regardless, it was 7:15 a.m. on a Saturday morning in JUNE and that man was at work! No wonder he had health problems after last year's national championship game. Anyways, it was good to see him and Go Gators!

I feel like I'm in a holding pin right now ready to be thrown out into an arena full of gladiators. Ahhh Tapering! There are 5 days until the Seattle Rock 'n' Roll Marathon and I'm ready to rock for sure. So much time and effort has passed to get to this point and now only a few hours left. I've written packing lists, gone over plans, made finally hotel and travel bookings and even come up with motivational ideas to write on my arms and hands. I'm ready. Let's do this!

I'll close with a preview picture of things to come after the marathon!

Behold! My new shoes as of yesterday!