The Inevitable

Inevitably, we had to return from vacation. We knew it would happen, even though we considered not. We are back. And reality hit hard last night when we had dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets for dinner last night (all 3 of us). I at least tried to turn ours into healthy wraps with brown rice and veggies. Does that count?
We had a very nice relaxing time, even with the midnight trip to the ER to have Evan's shoulder re-set on Thursday night. Poor guy slipped on the stairs and went to brace himself with his bad arm. He wanted to put it back in himself but the lucky guy married me, who apparently has the weakest stomach on the planet and i got light headed and had to lay down before I passed out. Despite the minor set back, we enjoyed the trip, the company and chance to get away. Walter LOVED the "baby" and loves to kiss his cousin all the time. He was not however that huge of a fan of me loving the baby and started to feel a little insecure when I would hold the baby. He also loved the boat, the water, going on walks, spending time with his uncles, and grand parents and great aunts and uncles. So much attention. He slept and napped well and he ate well too. The weather was dry-ish with only 1 day of rain, and we got 2 decently warm days. I had 2 chances to get out on the ski's and decided to wake board instead. I got up fine but was not quite as comfortable as I would have been on ski's and with limited time and many other wanting to share, didn't feel like wasting everyones time, and the boat's gas, to repeatedly be thrown from the board as I figured out what to do. I'm happy with getting up and maybe next year I'll figure out what to do next. I seriously ate more in the first day than I'd probably eaten any 3 days combined in the weeks leading up to the trip. I was OK with that until I contined that trend for the following 5 days. The food was amazing though and there was always something out to be snacked on. I tried to stay hydrated and keep on a decent routine but I left feeling like a big lazy blob. The travel back to Seattle went off with out a hitch. We had a few tight flights, didnt get a chance to eat in Atlanta like we wished, got stuck in the last row while we sat on the tarmak for 20 minutes in an 80 degree plane, but Walter held up well. He finally went to sleep on the plane for about 2 hours and ended up only being awake for about 5 hours total on Sunday. While we were gone, we missed heat and dry in Seattle, although we made up for it with rain Sunday, today and tomorrow.
I'm choosing not to acknowledge the fact that I'm running a marathon in (now) 4 days and feel incredibly unprepared because, as Andrew says, it's all a mental game at this point. Either my body is ready or it isn't there is nothing I can do in 4 days to change that, I have to let my brain be ready and I can control that over the next 4 days. I thought vacation would be perfect timing, get me a chance to focus on my body, relax and get some lazy easy miles in. Instead, I pigged out and didn't get much good sleep and now I feel like my body hates me. Not even considering that I took 3 days off just out of the crazy travel schedules and not having the chance to fit it in. I'm waking up at 4:30 this week to get my body ready for that time to be awake and I'll run tomorrow am and Thursday am, just a few short miles, after that wake up. I need to get my body ready for food, hydration and movement at that hour. I have a meeting in Waterville, the middle of no where WA on THursday at 8am so tomorrow I'll drive half way there after Walter goes to sleep and stay the night so I have a shorter drive in the morning. Thursday night Allison gets here and I can't wait. We will do the expo Friday, drive the course and sushi dinner, the perfect prep for a big race with lots of lean protein, carbs and easily digestable. Sunday I am going to take her to my favorite brunch spot: Salty's on Alki beach for an all you can eat champaigne and seafood buffet. Hopefully the weather will cooperate Sunday so we can walk off the miles sight seeing and enjoying each other's company. If we can't move, we'll find some other way to enjoy the time and each other!
My next steps after the race include taking a few days off, and the working on speed. I am participating with a team of Evan's coworkers in a charity event that consist of a 48 hours, and 180 something mile run with a team of 9 others (i think, i'm hazy on the details). This event is the weekend Walter will be in the QC, so Evan will be able to join us afterall (in the caravan not as a runner). I'm excited but also nervous to not let down his work team members. I agreed to an 8:15 pace for my 3 legs so I need to get some speed work in for that. My final mission for the summer is to run a half marathon and I'd like to do so in under 1 hr 45 inutes so that will take even more speed work, but I am not going to be too hard on myeslf for that goal. There are no shortage of races in the summer and fall months so the timing on the half is very flexible. I do love my new running group though and I'm affraid if I don't stay motivated, i won't have anything to keep me going.
I'll have some pics from Deep Creek up soon, probably will just post the highlights since those of you that went on the trip have already recieved a very detailed photo replay of the week via email, however if others wish to see, I'm happy to share.