Five For Friday

Some random thoughts for a Friday morning...

Last Long Run: I'm running 20 miles on Sunday. It will be the second time in three weeks that I've run the distance (well actually a couple of weeks ago I ran 22 but I'm hoping it's just 20 this time). This will be the last long run before the Long Beach Marathon. I'm excited for Long Beach but mostly I'm just excited that I will be done with the bulk of my training for this. I look forward to getting back into the normal swing of things and just focusing on my Lopers pace leader duties.

Long Beach Goals: I honestly have not thought a whole lot about what I want to accomplish at Long Beach. Part of me thinks that there's no way I can PR so perhaps that's why I've kind of not thought about it. I do feel though that I can and will have some sort of reasonable goal and that I can and will be able to shoot for it. For San Francisco I did not have a specific goal, but rather a goal of simply finishing. But for that race I just did not have the best training for it. Improved training has given me some confidence so I hope to make a reasonable goal.

Pace Group Duties: So far so good with my pace group. I'm sad that I won't be there this weekend for our first five-miler - I've got my 20 to keep me occupied - but it's been a good experience so far. I am a bit troubled though that our group is small. It just seems smaller than before, but the good thing is that there are a lot of first-timers. I do hope they stick around because that's what gives me the most satisfaction, seeing a first-timer tackle this challenge head on and become a marathoner.

Heat: It's so hot here in Southern California! It's supposed to be 106 on Saturday. Unreal. Next week is supposed to be in the high 90s. There's literally no relief in sight. It's fine if it's the summer but now makes it a bit tougher because I can't take the girls to a pool or the beach or something; they're in school, suffering. And then after school we have a lot going on but I may have to figure out a pool trip one day. Cool weather is a distant memory... not that I'm exactly begging for 40-degree temperatures but I'd like for the weather to go down to the 80s and stay there for a bit.

Picture Day: It's picture day at school today. Oh no! That means that I have to make the girls' hair all pretty. Ah the pressure. I haven't made it yet so I'm not sure what will happen but I just hope I don't sentence them to a life of doom. I hope their 2nd and 4th grade pictures come out great. I can do hair but it's just doing it a bit fancy or whatever that kind of challenges me.