What's next?

This morning I did a "trial run" of what I'll wear for race day. I had pants on the bottom, even though I love my shorts, the weather has been a bit more chilly lately. On top I wore a long sleeved UnderArmor top, with my purple TNT race singlet on top. If it's not too cold on race day I will ditch the UnderArmor, but this morning it was cold-- I even wore my gloves! I was only supposed to run 4 miles today, but when I hit mile 4 I wanted to keep going. So I did 4.5...shh don't tell. I was excited to do that last half mile because I finally figured out how to work the lap button on my Garmin, so I didn't have to do any mental math to figure out that split! Then I cooled down with a mile of walking. The splits:

Mile 1: 9:47
Mile 2: 9:56
Mile 3: 9:31
Mile 4: 9:43
4.5: 4:53
Cool down mile: 17:27

This run felt really great. I can definitely see myself continuing to do 4-5 mile runs in the morning before class (for the next week)/work (once I start). Which brings me to..."what's next?!" I wasn't going to talk about this until after the race, to see how that went, but I'm sure I will have a lot to say after the race, and I'd rather cover this now...

People have been asking me what I plan to do after the race in terms of running. I will definitely, 100% keep running. I'll probably take a week or 2 off to let myself recover, but then I plan to get back at it. I probably won't run on consecutive days like I used to do in the fall, but I can see myself running 3-4 times per week (every other day).

I'm assuming I'm going to love the racing atmosphere and unless I'm wrong, I would like to sign up for another race at some point. Since I'm not doing this race for time, and I plan on crossing the finish line hand-in-hand with Vic, I think I would like to do a half marathon for time at some point. I'm pretty burnt out from training, but it's also been a lot of fun, so I would do it again.

While I'll never say never, I just don't think a full marathon is in the future for me. Doing training runs of 10, 11, and 12 miles was time consuming enough...imagine the time commitment for 18, 20, 22 mile training runs!! Ah! I think I'd enjoy doing shorter distances...like 5k and 10k...for fun or for time.

The big one, that I can't believe I'm even going to mention, is that I've had in the back of my mind...trying a triathlon. I know I could handle the run, I think I could handle the bike, and with a little practice/ getting over my fear of open water (or the Schuykill River) I could probably, maybe do the swim? Again, I never say never, and this may or may not happen at some point in the future.

Obviously, I still have to get through this Sunday, and then we'll see from there! Whatever it is I end up doing though I know Dad will be with me through every mile!

Dad and Me before my prom, April, 2006

--Melissa