The Day Before

I am a neurotic being. I know this about myself and lovingly embrace it. I plan. I research. I make lists. I get anxious. I am rarely spontaneous.

This sounds both boring and stressful, but  I credit a lot of my successes in life to these traits of mine. And although I may get overly nervous which leads me to overly prepare, I have never regretted the time and effort I put into my readiness. When it comes down to the 'main event', I like going in feeling that I've done everything I could do to guarantee success.

There will always be things out of my control. I understand this. But the way I see it is, if I can mold the things that I do have control over to best support my goals, it will make it easier to deal with the surprises that inevitably come my way.

I am a hard worker, and I have seen that hard work pay off. Maybe I could be just as successful without all of the preparation, but I would be a nervous wreck on the 'big day.' It's worth it to me to put in my time because it makes me feel confident and deserving of success. I am able to enjoy my moment because I'm not wondering "what if I could have done more?"

I spent hours organizing, highlighting, paper clipping, and post-it noting all the paperwork required when applying for a home loan. Our lender actually called me and told me he wished I could train everyone how to do this, because I made his job so much easier. And you know what? I wasn't nervous about anything on closing day.

I took months (arguably years) deciding on what car we should by. I stressed about it in front of the computer and over books. But you know what? The only thing I had to deal with on the day we bought our car was the negotiation, because I already knew what I wanted and what I should pay for it.

I drew sketches of our garden plot, read all of the seed packets, and planned out where each vegetable should be planted. And I got picked on for it! But you know what? We had a kick-ass garden that year.

I packed an entire suitcase full of running clothes when I traveled for my marathon. You can read weather.com all you want, but you will never be able to exactly predict the weather on race day. And you know what? There was a hurricane in Virginia that weekend! I had what I needed to wear, but it wasn't what I would have brought if you told me I could only bring one set of clothes.

With all this being said, I completely stepped out of my comfort zone this week when I signed up for a half marathon last-minute! Ok, I had been toying with the idea for a few weeks, but signing up for a race 3 days ahead of time is still spontaneous for me. I thought it would be a good way to break up my training, plus the excitement of race day is always fun. I was more bummed than I thought I'd be after missing the Lincoln Half Marathon at the beginning of the month. When I heard about the Council Bluffs Half Marathon that was being held a few weeks later, it definitely made my radar. Council Bluffs, Iowa is actually much closer to Omaha than Lincoln - just over the Missouri River, in fact! I won't have to get up too early to get there on time, and the drive back to my house/shower/bed afterwards will be nice and quick.

I'm surprised I'm not freaking out more, seeing as how I haven't really internalized the fact that I'm running a 13.1 mile race tomorrow! I know a PR is out of the question, so I'm hoping to just go in and enjoy the run and the race atmosphere. Even so, there is a lot I need to do to prepare! So far I have:

Registered for the race (that totally counts as part of getting ready! )

Charged my iPod

Charged my Garmin

Made sure I have pre-race fuel on hand

As well as mid-race fuel (I won't need all of these, but I like to have choices)

Things I still need to do are:

• packet pick-up / expo
• figure out where to park tomorrow
• check weather
• check that clothes are clean (thanks, Kate!)
• attach bib number to shirt
• lay out shorts, shirt, sports bra, socks, shoes, sweat band, sunglasses
• set out band-aids/moleskin, Sports Slick, sunscreen
• upload new music to iPod
• lay out iPod, Garmin, camera
• pack up race fuel, paper towels, towel, water bottle, granola bar, t-shirt
• set up coffee for the morning
• carb-load!

On that note, I've got to get busy! Off to packet-pickup, see you later!