Today's emotion of the day is Antici.....
...........pation!
(See what I did there? Made you anticipate the end of the word. Genius, right? Bonus points if you can catch the musical movie reference I stole that from)
*Ahem* Moving right along....
Anticipation [an-tis-uh-pey-shuh
n]: Noun.
n]: Noun. 1. Realization in advance; foretaste, 2. expectation or hope.
I am FULL of anticipation about this race. I keep wondering about weather conditions, the race course, the fans on the side, what the medal is going to look like, if I can keep up with one of the pace coaches or if I should just go my own, how my stomach is going to do, if I can make it up the hills, will I need a medic, will I be the last one to finish, can I actually DO this? Ahhh! So many things to think about! But, despite any negative thoughts that sometimes pop into my head, I also anticipate crossing the finish line and having an overwhelming sense of pride and accomplishment. My finish goal is 4 hours. I know a lot of people who finish in 3 hours or so... I don't care. I'm aiming for 4 hours. If it takes less time, power to me, but I want to set a reachable goal for myself.
I'm also trying to decide if I should run with or without a watch on. Sometimes I feel like having the watch on is helpful because I can work a pace and time how long my walk/run breaks are, but then other times I feel like I'm utterly chained to my watch and timing myself. Double -edged sword I guess. Any thoughts on that? I know you're not supposed to change anything up for race day, but it's a thought I'm playing around with for right now.
Going back to my emotion of the day- my feeling of anticipation seems to be a positive emotion as well. I picture myself crossing the finish line, and beating my 4 hour goal. I just have to hold onto this feeling and not let fear/doubt/anxiety creep in come race day.
Oh! And in answer to Kurt's question on my last post, yes, I will be running with music on. I will only have one headphone bud in, but I want to have my own music because I've learned what songs pump me up the most. Maybe in another year or so I can learn to run sans music, but for right now, I feel it's a good option for me.
