Only six days remain until I will be standing at the start of the Indy Monumental marathon! This training cycle went so quickly, almost in a blur. I feel like I just finished the Boston Marathon, but over six months have passed. Looking back at my training since then, it was uneventful and solid. I did not miss a run or a workout, nor did I fail to hit my paces in speed work. I of course made adjustments to some of those paces to factor in the summer heat and humidity, but I never finished a run feeling like I didn't fulfill its purpose. One of my goals this training cycle was to strengthen a really weak area, my mental muscle. I read some really great books, listened to some podcasts, and took away some things I can use to build my own race day bag of positivity tricks. I still don't know my exact goal, but I do know a PR is most certainly possible.
There is one minor hiccup going into race week: yesterday morning I woke up with an ulcer. I've had an unusually stressful few weeks, and this is how my body likes to react. Thankfully, life is much calmer now, but the ulcer is really affecting my sleep and my eating habits. Besides feeling like there is a lit match in my stomach, I am nauseous and feel full very quickly when eating. I am taking Prilosec and am somewhat confident it will die down by the end of the week. My main concern is a what the effect poor eating and poor sleep could have on my body the week before a marathon.
On a positive note, the race day weather forecast is somewhat reasonable right now - cloudy and temperatures in the low 50's. I'd be happy with cooler temps, but given the unusually warm fall we've had, this is fantastic. My family is coming with me to Indy and it's nice to know they won't be freezing while they wait for me at the finish line.
Overall, I am 100% confident I have done everything I could do leading up to the race to be successful. I have taken care of everything within my control, and the rest will be up to the race day gods. Yes, I could have started doing yoga like I had intended, but there's always another marathon training cycle to actually put that plan in motion! I do have some exciting plans for my next marathon, so more to come on that after Indy.
Best of luck to those of you racing next weekend, and if you have any miraculous ulcer treatments, please let me know!
