Gu!

What's excellent about my next marathon is that it is now only five days away. What's also excellent is that I'm ready for it.

I am. Just look at my running log. (See below.)

If you'll notice, I have clearly been completing PLENTY of runs in preparation for this upcoming feat. Go ahead and count those red squares. That's right. 5 times. Just this month! How DOES she do it?

Let us now turn to exhibit B.

Do you see those weeks with 50+ miles? Are you thinking how the hell did she accumulate those miles when she's clearly running less than 3 times a week? Me too. I must have been exaggerating the miles I've spent walking up and down these damn hills.

I do want to justify the measely 4 miles I've logged thus far this week. I'm totally tapering... You CAN call it a taper week if you've never completed a high mileage week, right? Aren't those pesky 20, 21, and 22 mile runs optional? I guess it all depends. I did complete my first marathon three weeks after having strep throat and weighing 15 more pounds than I do now. But I got a 16 miler in that year. The most I've run this summer is 10. And it wasn't pretty. Even with Gu, a Fuel Belt, and a visor, it wasn't pretty.

Oh, CLG. You were always so instrumental in helping me lace up the Asics and pound the trail. Why don't you reconsider that move to SF? We can run together all the time! Without having to "swim" through the humid night air! Without having to fear that we'll melt somewhere along the Rock Creek Parkway between the P Street Exit and the Watergate Building! And did I mention that the bikers in San Francisco are nice! Plus, Bay to Breakers is much more fun than the Army Ten Miler. No terrorist threats on the 14th St bridge. Just plenty of booze and costumes. Or no costumes...

Nike Marathon, I don't know if I'm going to finish you. But I will try. I will go to the starting line with 4 Gus and my entire body covered in Body Glide. I will wear a visor and shorts that are embarrassingly short. I will pretend that CLG is right next to me whispering, "Bastards. I'm a Kenyan. Really. I just look Italian. Corral 18 is BULLSHIT!" I will pass mile 6.2 and laugh as I recall our first race together. Before we prefaced 6.2 miles with the word, "only." I will make it to mile 9 and remember the running Elvises with Super Soakers at our first Rock and Roll Half. I will make it to 13.1 and I will try not to quit. I will try to remember mile 13.1 at Philly last year while the crowd cheered outside of the Art Museum. I will try to persevere to mile 16 and envision Philly in 2003, when seeing Mom and Dad for the first time in 10 miles was better than coming home from college that first time. I will try to keep going to mile 20. I will pretend the water is Yuengling, like it always is, in Manayunk.

And if I make it to 22 and 24 and 26 and then 26.2, I will likely barf, shit, cry, and smile. I will think of you, CLG, when the stomach pains sink in. And I will vow to do everything again soon. Very very soon. The right way. You know, with training. And even if I don't finish - rather, especially if I don't finish - I will vow to do it again soon. Because 2 of the top 5 days of my life involve running. And because that goal I have to eventually run Boston? Well, now it is more or less official.