Two weeks until it all becomes REAL.

Two weeks until everything will be REAL.

Real?

Yes.
Like the Velveteen Rabbit became real or Christmas Morning to a child.

In two weeks I can get up (like every red-blooded first-time Boston qualifier in America) at 4:45 PST and wait at the computer to (try and) register for the big race. It seems so strange that I might actually even go there and race- almost as strange as qualifying.

Looking back, I really had very little confidence about it. The only thing guiding me was the 10K time I started with right before training and my SmartCoach plan that got a little faster every few weeks. That, and some very encouraging words I got from a few others I had shared my secret hope with (one a runner, one not). Even on race day I had three plans: what I had trained for, what I needed to BQ and a worst case scenario.

This week I had planned to be in a taper week for Portland. It didn’t work out that way. God had other plans for me and our money. I will enjoy watching how others do in that race though, and I will get my turn soon.

So, now I wait for it all to be "real", to be really training for another marathon, to be officially registered and committed. I am not sure how it will really feel. I hope I feel less guilty about taking the money from the family budget after committing than I do now.

On a different note, I had an uneventful run today. Nice and normal. Slow and easy :) . Pretty cold, too- my first run in tights since last spring!