1) Hydrate. At this point you should be drinking enough water to hydrate your full 42km...yes, a week before. Our trainer put it this way "If you aren't waking up at 3am to relieve yourself, you are not drinking enough water yet".
Our trainer has also told us that we should be getting in some good sleeps to store up our body's energy. Unfortunately, I keep waking up in the middle of
the night to pee.
2) Carbo-load. This is an important one for me to include here, as I know that my family reads this blog regularly. What is carbo-loading exactly? Well, it is the ingestion of foods, high in carbohydrates (which convert into energy in your body) pre-race so that you have stores of carbohydrate-based energy on race day.
It is NOT eating anything with carbohydrates, as things like potato chips have high carbohydrates but do not count. This is because, if the carbohydrates are made up of too much sugar or has a high amount of fat, it will have a negative effect on your system. Sugar drains, fat slows.
So, carbo-loading: pasta
NOT carbo-loading: ice cream
carbo-loading: high fiber breads
NOT carbo-loading: creme caramel
carbo-loading: rice
NOT carbo-loading: chocolate brownies
carbo-loading: fresh fruits
NOT carbo-loading: chocolate cake that happens to have a few healthy raspberries in it
For those of you not part of my family - yesterday was my birthday. My family attempted to plump me up with several sweet treats, which in turn, slowed this morning's run significantly.
3) If you are running with a charity, you will start to get all sorts of goodies. Today I received my technical shirt, as well as specialty luggage tags. We've also recently received our itinerary, and all of the rules of the marathon.
This is very intimidating and in me, at least, has created a permanent state of anxiety which may not fully leave me until the 13th.
4) Last minute realizations - this is the time when you start getting hit with the 'oh crap, I need to finish breaking in my new shoes', or 'shoot, I need to pick up some energy', or my favourite realization of Jeff's 'you mean we have to be up at 2am on race day?'
Overall, right now is a very intense time. We're trying to get ready for the holidays and make sure that everything is in order before we leave and planned to a T for when we get back. We're trying to remember to pack everything, and pack it in the right place (always pack your running gear in your carry-on as you don't want the airline to lose your running shoes!). This is challenging since I work right up to the day we leave - which is a 5am wake-up call kind of day.
We're trying to get out for runs, while trying to remember something as simple as getting some American money for souvenirs!
Add to all of that yesterday's birthday party....
I kept the day mellow partly out of necessity - alcohol 8 days before the race will probably not sit well.
The time spent with my family was well needed and very refreshing, and my mom's cake gave me a good laugh. If you can't tell in the picture, that is me, across the finish line, Jeff, still running, and my whole family cheering us on.
Everyone was thinking of the race it seemed, and that was well reflected in the gifts - my Aunt got me some warm gloves to finish my training runs, my cousins got me a gift card for the Running Room for last minute supplies and iTunes for an audiobook to listen to on the course, my parents had already bought my replacement shoes and some other race related items but also pitched in some American $ to buy a memento of the experience, and the greatest gift was two little pewter feathers from my younger sister. Each one was tied to a ribbon, so, as my mom explained, I could tie them to my shoes on race day to help me fly, lift me up when I wanted to crawl, and remind me that my sister was there beside me.
What an amazing time this is right now - the anxiety, and the energy surrounding us is phenomenal. It's hard to believe that it's all coming to its peak, that everything we have done so far is leading us to this one final moment that will soon be past us.
So now, beyond all of these preparations that I have to keep in the back of my head, the last thing I must do is work on remembering - every - little - detail.
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