Ready to start racing?

We interrupt the many recipe posts to bring you a marathon training update...

This Saturday is sort of the kick off to my racing season. It's the Mid Summers Night 30km. I'd like to say that I'm not at all worried. Cool as a cucumber (or a bowl of chilled gazpacho). But sadly, this is not the case. The Summer heat and humidity have been kicking my ass for weeks. EVERY run has felt like a massive, horrible, sweaty challenge. It's hard to tell if I'm improving, or getting stronger when I feel just as exhausted 13 weeks into training as I did at week 1...

So Saturday's race is 30km. Followed in a few weeks by the Scotia Waterfront Half Marathon. And then the San Francisco FULL Marathon a couple weeks after that. Yes, as of this weekend my goal race is only 8 weeks away. To some, this may seem like a long time. Nothing to worry about. However I remember not too long ago finding out we got into the race. At that time, race day was 25 weeks away. Those 23 weeks have FLOWN by. Which means the next 8 weeks will likely fly by also. And in addition to my upcoming races, there are also the most difficult training runs still to come.

Nerves are creeping up. Doubts starting to set in...

So now may just be the perfect time to pull out a book my friend Yvonne at work gave me for Christmas. It's called "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running". To quote Yvonne, "I saw it and thought it was everything you were about - Japan and running!". It's a fantastic little memoir about author Haruki Murakami's experiences over the years as a long distance runner. Now I personally am not a fan of the Oprah approved, chicken soup for the soul, hug yourself daily self help genre (I refused to read "The Secret" even after my mom tried to pawn it off on me after she accidentally stole it from Costco - that's a funny story for another day...), but while reading this book I found myself constantly tagging pages or underlining sections that I found inspiring or could relate to. The quote that struck me most, the one I will now be repeating to myself before each race or difficult long run "Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional." I'm running a long tough distance. It's going to hurt. It may suck. But how much I let that effect me is totally under MY control.

"What I Talk About When I Talk About Running" is a great book to read in general, but if you're a runner, it's an absolute MUST!

But for now, wish me luck for Saturday. Or as we runners sometimes say - Hope I can kick asphalt!