This morning I woke up at 3:30am convinced today was Sunday. The good news is, I woke up excited and happy and pumped. Then I realized it wasn’t Sunday and thought it was Saturday. Then I realized it was only Thursday, was totally bummed and went back to sleep. I actually ended up getting my first decent night’s sleep in days and it felt so wonderful! I spent a good portion of my morning being lazy before heading out for my last training run.
Two miles is a weird distance. I started, and then it was time to turn around. I felt so confused. I felt good, but not like yesterday where I felt fantastic. I’m nervous. Did I mention that? Taper week is weird. I know they say “trust in your training”, but how do I know that my training is trustworthy? I mean for the most part, I made it up, and this is my first time at this so perhaps my training totally sucked. Or on the other hand, perhaps I am so unaware of how amazing it was and I will bust out my half marathon in record time! Hah. Positive thoughts, right? 🙂
Last night, I spent hours took no time at all creating the perfect half marathon playlist. Seriously, record time. I am so fast at everything these days 🙂 I tried to be smart and figure out how to import the list to my blog, but that’s a little too high tech for me, so now I will–in record time!–type it all out instead. You can judge my music. It’s okay. Sometimes I do too,
- Rockin’ Robin by Michael Jackson
- I Want it That Way by The Backstreet Boys
- Fighter by Christina Aguilera
- Sisters are Doin’ it for Themselves by The Eurythmics (suggested by Sylvi)
- Paper Planes by M.I.A
- Summer Girls by LFO (to remind me of camp, Mac and Sylvi)
- Send Me On My Way by Rusted Root
- Dirrty by Christina Aguilera
- MmmBop by Hanson (to remind me that I have awesome taste in music)
- Empire State of Mind by Jay Z and Alicia Keys
- 96,000 from In the Heights (suggested by Heather)
- The Story by Sara Ramirez
- Foundations by Kate Nash
- Baby by Justin Bieber (to remind me that I’m really mature)
- Jen Doesn’t Like Me Anymore by Less Than Jake
- It’s Your Wedding Day from The Wedding Singer
- Kiss That Girl by Kate Nash
- Come On Eileen by Save Ferris (to remind me of Bethy)
- Stand Out from A Goofy Movie (suggested by Heather and Megs)
- Born This Way by Lady Gaga
- Let’s Hear it for the Boy from Footloose
- Defying Gravity from Wicked (because I don’t actually hate it as much as the musical theatre snob in me pretends to)
- Turn Me On by David Guetta and Nicki Minaj
- Life’s a Happy Song from The Muppets
- Aint No Mountain High Enough from Sister Act (how could this playlist NOT include Sister Act?!)
- The Edge of Glory by Lady Gaga
- Brand New Day from The Wiz
- La Vie Boheme B from Rent
- 121 from A Goofy Movie (suggested by Heather and Megs)
- Blackout from In The Heights
- Eye of the Tiger by Survivor
- Set Fire to the Rain by Adele
- Proud Mary by Ike and Tina Turner (to remind me of my favorite spin teacher who is 50, ran a marathon and 2 days later taught spin–I want to be her when I grow up!)
- Footloose from Footloose
- ABC by Michael Jackson
That’s about 2 hours and 22 minutes (whoa lots of 2s!) of music. The hope is that I will finish to Proud Mary because how awesome would that be? But Footloose is my fav running song, so that one would be pretty good too. I do not want ABC to play. I put it there because I like it, so if I do happen to get to it, maybe I won’t be totally bummed, but I do NOT want it to play.
Okay, I know my goal should just be to finish, and originally it was. Then I was like “Okay, I just want to finish in under 2:30. I can totally do that.” Then somehow I got totally stuck on this goal of sub 2:20. Not super fast by any means, but still something that I feel not too sure of. I will be happy to finish regardless, but I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t start to get a little competitive with myself.
Now for a kind of embarrassing question. If you would rather go the rest of your life without reading (not in a ton of detail–I promise) about my running and bathroom trips, then please stop reading now. It’s okay–no hard feelings!
Runner friends, I need help. Almost every single time I run, I have to go to the bathroom between mile .5 and mile 2. It almost always happens in the very beginning, but it isn’t like a mild I’ll go when I can, it’s like “Where the hell is the nearest bathroom?!?!?!” Whether I eat, don’t eat, take my thyroid meds, wait to take them (yes, I tried not taking them to see if it would help), or whatever I do, I just have to go. Thank goodness it has not happened during any of my races so far. That seems like a miracle, because anyone I’ve run with has experienced waiting outside while I go into sketchy bathrooms. Please oh please, tell me how to make sure this doesn’t happen during this race and tank my finish time!!! Do I drink some coffee and jog around the block to make sure it happens before? Do I just wait and hope for the best? Do I pack TP and squat behind a tree? Yes, that is a legitimate question. I do not want to waste time in bathroom lines. Please, oh please, help!
I LOVE YOUR PLAYLIST IT MAKES ME SO HAPPY!!!!!!! And i’m gonna add some of those songs to my own. I already went through all the suggestions from your facebook posts and found some new stuff. Like Avril & Lil Mama’s girlfriend remix. Love it.
And I have absolutely no idea what to tell you about the bathroom. All I can suggest are Depends, but I feel like no one wants a half marathon diaper rash. Good luck.
Yay! I looove your playlist! Makes me want to make one specially for my part of the relay on Sat – But I’ll probably just save it for my upcoming half (2 weeks!!). My running music lately has been a lot of David Guetta, LMFAO, Panic at the Disco, Jay Sean, and Jason Derulo – oh and a little Brittany haha. So basically a lot of crazy beats blaring in my ear 😉 Yours is so well rounded and is switched up, I like it!
As far as the bathroom thing goes (if I am understanding you correctly) I would say it might be a little late in the game to try anything drastic (I was going to recommend to start taking a probiotic regularly and to be sure to take one the night before so you can do your business before hand) But sometimes when I wake up with an upset tummy (which is like 80% of the time before I race…which is prob just nervs) I like to take a Pepto Bismol tablet (the kind you swallow cuz the chewables are naaasty) – it helps me keep things under control…if you know what I mean. Not sure if it will help ya, but that’s my somewhat secret weapon.
PS – LOVE the Hanson and Eye of the Tiger
I just found your blog, so I’m not sure on your whole history but I would suggest evaluating what you eat the night before. I have found that it’s best to eat my carb heavy meal at lunch time or for a marathon two nights before and then stick to veg-heavy and simple carbs after that. This means lots of bananas, salads, fruit, liquid meals, shakes, smoothies, basic crackers, chips, but no heavy pastas, rice, large amounts of dairy or meat. Also, I don’t know if you are a coffee drinker (and if you aren’t then don’t try right before the race) but that always helps me get things..ummm…moving. Finally, the digestive track works a bit on habit so if you are used to “going” at that time, then I suggest trying to find a way to rotate your habits a bit—changing evening eating habits can help a lot and also giving yourself more time in the morning…maybe a few situps or something?
Thank you so much!! I am a coffee drinker, but I usually wait until post run to have it. It’s not necessarily a time thing, it’s running which is so weird. I will eat the same exact way, then go take a spin class and have no issues, but something about the act of running. Maybe a small cup of coffee and an easy jog pre race?
That’s a very inspired playlist!!! I’m sure it will help you power through!!!!!! All the variety. I need to work on my playlists. I get annoyed listed to Pandora.