Nervous? Who Me? Pshhh...Whatevs...OK, Maybe A Little

Yes, I know I should be sleeping. That's not the point, well, maybe it is.

In less than 36 hours I'll be hitting the streets of Lincoln for my first half marathon of the year, also my first Lincoln Half Marathon of my running career. I have heard many FABULOUS things about this run, so I figured this year, what the hell...

This is also the first race I've ever TRAINED for. When I did Buffalo County Stampede last year, it was only because a friend asked me if I was going to do it because she was planning on it. I took that as a challenge, and said OK. I think that was in about May, and the longest I had run was a 10k (6.2 miles). Last year was my first year actually RUNNING (EVER, like in my LIFE), and so I just pushed myself to run an extra mile each week leading up to the race in June. Let's just say that last year's half mile was BRUTAL, but I finished. It did take a toll on me, however...mentally, physically and emotionally, probably because I hadn't trained like I should have.

Lincoln is first out of three half marathons for me, next one is Buffalo County Stampede in June, and the third is Chicago half marathon in September. Unfortunately, and I'll admit it, I have been focusing MORE on Chicago than I have on Lincoln.

Fast forward to this year, and did everything I was supposed to do. I followed a plan, I added workouts, I sacrificed workouts (sorry Zumba...I WILL RETURN!), I (sort of) watched what I ate, until boom, a calf injury forces me to end my training two weeks early. This may be a blessing in disguise though, because it's forcing me to actually THINK about the race.

So here's where things get interesting. It's been said if you can run 10, you can run 13.1.  My longest run has been 8 miles THREE WEEKS PRIOR to race day (13.1). I have a (minor) calf injury, requiring me to get a calf wrap to support my right calf muscle while running. I've worn this twice, both times running very MINIMAL miles. Is my injury just a mental test to see if I have what it takes to run this whole race? Am I too afraid of what MIGHT happen that is making the annoyance of the injury stay there and lurk about when I run on Sunday? There's 10 THOUSAND people running on Sunday. Will I still be the last one in out of 10,000, or will I represent my bib number (9779) and be 221 away from being the last one to cross? Have I focused too much on Chicago that I've completely just let Lincoln fly under the radar? Finally, will I be able to cross in under 4 hours and 4 minutes (last year's hm time)?

These are all issues that, if I ALLOW myself, are making me a bit nervous about Sunday. The thing is, I'm hoping that all my training has made me strong enough to bypass most of these issues.

While training, I made a conscious effort to (try to) free my mind of any obstacle. Most of the time I was successful. There's a line in one of my favorite movies, The Last Samurai, where Tom Cruise's character is stuck in a remote village as a prisoner, and against his captors' wishes, starts training as a Samurai fighter. While being repeatedly defeated, one villager comes up to him and reminds him that he has too much on his mind. He's minding this, minding that, minding people watching. "NO MIND". He clears his thoughts and comes to a draw with the warrior he's been challenging.

"NO MIND".

That's how I hope to beat the nerves on Sunday.

Zumbarunner...Whether shaking it or running it, I'll cross the finish line!