Yikes! I mean.. Wahoo!
The last week has been full of the usual pre-race rituals:
* Calm confidence in my race plan and my ability to hit my goal.
* Indifference to the race day weather forecast.
*Absolute faith that I've packed everything I need.
...and so on.
I have even answered the most important question of all: "What shoes should I wear?"
On the one hand, we have the trusty, dusty white ones. They've been in the plan from the beginning. Or at least the last couple weeks.
On the other hand, there's the new hotness with their bright colors and low... kilometrage?
How do you say "mileage" in Canadian, anyway? That question has been plaguing me all season. I finally got relatively good at the math problem of converting miles into kilomet(er/re)s and back (while running!), but I still have no idea how Canadian runners spell their unit of distance, or how they refer to the distance run in a week. I *do* know that compared to counting normal miles, counting Canadian miles rocks! I averaged more than a hundred Canadian miles a week, even with the down weeks included!
But back to the shoes... These new ones arrived on the scene just about the time I had written the white ones into the plan. They looked nice. They felt nice. They even smelled nice (when I first took them out of the box).
But the white ones... I specifically wrote them into the plan! I can't just go changing the plan, can I?
Then again, bright colored shoes have been my super-secret secret to success in the past few races. After all, it's all about the shoes, right?
...but the white ones have bright laces! And some orange parts!
When it came time to pack my shoes (that time being the last minute) I was still on the fence. I thought about packing them both. But no. I decided. There can be only one. Well.. one pair. Both shoes in that pair, of course.
And so it is done. One pair in Toronto, the other in Austin. It can't be undone now.
...
Oh my goodness... I've made a terrible mistake.