I'm here

I have arrived in Lake Placid. I started my workouts this morning before the sun came up so that I could hit the road nice and early. The drive was quite pleasant. I didn't spend much time on the interstate so there was always something new to look at, plus the nice break on the ferry that took me across Lake Champlain and it hardly felt like I spent over 4 hours traveling.

Immediately upon my arrival I went over to get registration taken care of and walked incredibly briskly through the expo since there is really nothing to look at over there. It amazes me how much smaller that thing gets every year. I swear there used to be like twice as many vendors. But whatever, it just makes me waste less time. I checked into my hotel and have spent most of the afternoon just sitting on my bed flipping through the channels. Though boring, it's pretty much exactly what I need to be doing right now.

It's good to be back, although admittedly I'm a bit more nervous than I remember being the past couple of years. Here's the thing: I haven't done a race that has meant this much to me in probably close to three years. Seriously, maybe since I raced here in 2006, although probably Kona that year too. Either way, it's been a while. I feel a lot more tense when I actually care how it all turns out. It was almost easier when I wasn't trained and I knew it would be a disaster, it's not like I was expecting much anyway.

It was funny driving into town this afternoon. The last stretch of the drive goes along the final two miles or so of the marathon course. I remembered turning off of River Road in the pouring rain, and heading over that little bridge and up the hill. Walking. I couldn't run anymore. Aside from the fact that my legs were not adequately prepared to handle running a marathon due to injury, my foot, which had hurt some in training but hadn't given me much trouble until about mile 22, decided to start throbbing in pain to the point where I had no choice but to limp the remaining three miles. As I went up that hill after the bridge, walking slowly with a limp, arms crossed in front of my chest because I was shivering, another racer ran by me and nicely offered the long-sleeved shirt he had tied around his waist. A nice gesture, but since the shirt was sopping wet and probably wouldn't have helped anyway, I declined and just kept shivering. I figured I had earned myself a nice, slow, chilling walk to finish the race.

I walked the final miles and watched my Kona slot run by me. I hadn't really expected to get one, anyway, unless there was some miracle. But up to that point in the season my other race performances had basically been taking the worst-case scenarios I made up in my head, and making them even worse. I didn't really expect to have to walk, either, but I didn't feel sorry for myself that day. I knew it wasn't going to be my race. I was just glad to be able to finish.

This time, though, I don't expect to have to walk. I don't necessarily expect to have a blazingly fast race either, but I do hope to see something resembling at least a shadow of my former self. It'll be interesting to go out and actually feel ready... or at least I think I feel ready. You never really know until you get out there. Until then, all I can do now is rest and eat. I am very good at both.