The Day Before 50 Miles

This time tomorrow, I’ll be almost four hours into a run. And I won’t even be halfway done yet. It’s a little tough to wrap my head around that. I’m more than nervous; I’m scared. But, it’s a good scared. Mostly. It’s venturing into the unknown, trying something new. I’m very glad that I’m running the 50 miler tomorrow, but I am so looking forward to having it done and out of the way. Sunday is going to bring a whole new level of relaxation, I’m sure.

I went back and looked at my last post before the 2008 Philadelphia Marathon. It’s funny the similarities between what I was feeling right before my first marathon and what I’m feeling now. Then, “I’m nervous, excited, scared.” Now, same. In some ways, this is even scarier. I had done 20+ mile runs in training before that first 26.2, but I haven’t done anything longer than 34 going into tomorrow. Those last 16 miles are a complete unknown.

Another big unknown is how my foot is going to hold up. It’s not very swollen this morning, but it was most of the week, including last night. I’ve been keeping up with the Advil and anti-inflammatory cream and icing (in fact, I’m icing it as I type this). But, it’s been rough. For the week, I only have 5.5 miles in. Needless to say, that’s quite a bit out of the norm for me and scares me more than a little going into tomorrow. I’ve been having these great races lately on top of high mileage weeks; what happens when I go into a race with almost no mileage?

The trails themselves worry me too. It’s tough to get much trail training in here in NYC so I don’t have much practice with footwork. I think that will be an issue, especially after I start to get fatigued. And fatigue itself will definitely be an issue. The weather forecast shows 70 at the 5 a.m. start warming to 88 degrees by the time I finish. Add in some crazy Virginia humidity and all of the sudden, this thing’s looking as hot as New Jersey was (but twice as long).

So, yeah, there are a few question marks going into tomorrow. But that’s part of the fun. As crazy as it sounds, I like not knowing how it’s going to end up. But, I am definitely looking forward to finding out…