Week # 13

Short report this week - not a lot going on. My runs were good, a total of 37.5 miles, with my long run coming in at 16 miles! Way to go, me!! Nothing very exciting or interesting to report. I’m still very nervous about the marathon. I passed the "two months to go" point earlier this week and had a moment of sheer panic at the idea of running 26.2 miles. It’s funny how I can go from feeling very confident and strong one day to a total terrified meltdown the next. And with the weather being this dark and miserable, I'm just not motivated or feeling very confident. Ryan keeps talking to me about making plans for some kind of celebration lunch/dinner after the marathon, and I’m just not sure I can do it. I'm freaked out about the whole thing. I’m so nervous that I might not finish and I’ll be a wreck. And I’m nervous that I will finish and still be a wreck! I know finishing will be an amazing feeling and I’ll be on Cloud 9, but it’s so hard to know how my body will react and how I’ll feel afterwards. Either way, I’m not sure if I want to plan anything just yet.

My big exciting news this week was my trip to Chicago. For my birthday last month, Ryan bought us train tickets to Chicago and a weekend at the W Hotel, Lakeshore. We left Friday afternoon and boarded our train around 3:00, business class. The train took 5 hours and 40 minutes to arrive in downtown Chicago (only 40 more minutes than driving). We really enjoyed the train. Although it’s not as fast as flying, it was really nice having the time to read, work, talk, be able to walk around, and not have to deal with security check-ins, baggage, parking, cramped legs, etc. We dropped off our bags at the hotel and went to dinner at the Signature Room, on the 95th floor of the John Hancock building. We had a great table overlooking the lake and Navy Pier, although it was too cloudy to see much. The food was great and we had the most fantastic bottle of wine, Witness Tree pinot noir. You must try it.

Saturday morning I decided to postpone my long run and sleep in. I was so nervous that the run would be miserably cold (it was 5 degrees and snowy) and just too exhausting and draining. I wanted to be able to enjoy our weekend getaway and not have to beg Ryan to let me go back to the hotel at 7:00 pm to go to sleep. Ryan’s been so good to me with my training and spent a lot of money on the trip, I didn’t want to ruin it for him. So we slept in! It was fabulous! Once we got moving that morning, we had a great lunch at a little café close to the theatre. And then we saw Wicked, at the Oriental. I really thought it was great. I read the book a few years ago, which I thought was complicated and dark, but the musical was funny and light. The plot lines were very different from the book, which of course bothered me, and I wasn’t familiar with the music, but all in all, I thought it was good. Saturday night we met up with Ryan’s brother and his girlfriend for dinner (at the Blue Water Grill) and drinks (lots and lots of drinks). :) We ended up dancing the night away! So much fun!

Sunday, the windchill in Chicago was -25 degrees. Yes, NEGATIVE 25 degrees. So we decided to skip the shopping and site seeing for a lazy day at the hotel, which we both really needed and enjoyed. We had a fabulously greasy lunch in bed and watched all kinds of terrible TV. We caught our train that evening and headed home. It was a really great weekend – thank you Ruby, ilyvm.

Weekly recap:
Monday: 4.0 miles
Tuesday: 8.0
Wednesday: 3.0
Thursday: 6.5
Saturday: 16.0

Total: 37.5 miles