Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Mother Nature can kiss my hairy *bleep*

Okay, here's my taper madness obsession checklist:

1. Tight left calf: done with. I beat it into submission with The Stick (greatest invention ever!), ice, heat, stretching and running. Two straight discomfort-free days and I'm calling it good to go.

2. Sick kid: diagnosed. I thought my daughter was coming down with a nasty cold on Monday, but it turns out that she actually has pink eye (along with my son). Not necessarily good news, but I can run with a crusted shut eye. Running with a fever and a head cold is another matter. Plus, both of them have been on eye drops for over 24 hours now, meaning they are no longer contagious and I still don't have it.

3. Mother Nature: still a dirty hobag. Okay, I will give her credit because the forecast for Sunday in Fort Collins looks great (so far). But, the forecast for western South Dakota and eastern Wyoming on Thursday and Friday is spectacularly horrible. There is a winter storm watch/warning in effect with snow accumulations Thursday night of up to 15 inches. What the hell!!?? It's freakin May for crying out loud! We were planning on leaving for Fort Collins on Friday evening and the storm should be mostly passed by then, but the roads will still be sufficiently craptacular to make the drive way more stressful than it needs to be. This is even more of a slap in the face considering that it was in the low 80s yesterday and is supposed to be in the upper 60s today before the storm rolls in. I know, the question is: would I rather have crappy weather for the drive down there or for the race itself? The answer is: I want my cake and I want to eat it too....I want perfect weather for the entire trip. It can snow all it wants to on Monday...

2 comments:

jen said...

This is all very normal taper anxiety. The weather is just giving you something to focus on, rather than something physical or more race-specific. You'll be fine. Glad to hear the calf is better and the sickness never hit.

"For me, this race starts in Colorado and ends in Boston..."

Beautiful. You'll do it. That course looks fantastic, but the altitude would hinder me. I've run several marathons with a big drop like that (CIM and Boston twice each) and I didn't find it to be as painful on the quads as I'd heard it would be. It's gonna hurt no matter what, so may as well run fast and get it over with.

GOOD LUCK!!! Drive safe and have the perfect race you've trained for.

jen said...

Chris- just looked up your results. Congratulations on a great race but doesn't look like you got the BQ. It looks like a PR though, and a time that anyone should be proud to be able to run. Can't wait to hear the details and I hope you're proud of your run. :)