What was I thinking??? I’m supposed to run a 13 mile race in less than 12 days. Who runs 13 miles? For fun? I’ve never run that far in my life. I might actually die. Seriously — I felt this pain in my left side the other day while running…I could maybe have had a small heart attack. I think I did. I’d better take it easy for a few days.
I panicked like this once before — right before I ran my first 10k a few years ago. I said all of the above to Chris, who told me that it didn’t matter if I finished or not. That I had worked very hard and that everyone would be proud of me and love me regardless of whether I ran the entire thing or walked it. A very compassionate response. A loving, understanding response. A totally, totally wrong response. He has since been made to understand that it is his job as Head Cheerleader to lie, lie, lie. His new response when I start saying these things is “I have no doubt you can do anything you set your mind to.” If I told him I was going to run Pikes Peak tomorrow before breakfast, I’m pretty sure this would now be his response. Smart man.
Though come to think of it, when he told me it was okay if I didn’t finish, I thought to myself, “What? You don’t think I can do it? I’ll show you, you….you!” Yep. He was all nice and encouraging and I was all snippy and mad. But if nothing else had gotten me across the finish line, that did. So perhaps he knew what he was about after all.
