I slept horribly last night! I had pasta for dinner last night, topped with shiitake mushrooms and sundried tomates, lathered in garlic olive oil. So good! Except I ate way too many mushrooms and they sat in my stomach all night long. They are still there feeling all heavy and not leaving enough room in my stomach for breakfast. Nice, huh?

I think I ended up with between 4-5 hours of sleep total and not quite all of that was very restful. Lots of dreams going on in there. I got up around 5:30. Enough was enough already. The first thing I do each morning is check the outside thermometer just outside my kitchen door. 39°. After turning on the computer I checked the temperature on weather.com, it said 40°. Once again it was pretty dead on. I have been checking the current temperature readings on weather.com against my outdoor thermometer in the mornings and before all of my runs for the past many weeks and they always coincide perfectly. What this means is that I am going to trust tomorrow morning's forecast in Philly.

Sunday
7 am - 42°
8 am - 44°
9 am - 46°
10 am - 49°
11 am - 51°

It can't get any better than that. That is exactly what I have been hoping for.

Philly, here I come!

My week of controlled running has been a success. I finished things off this morning with a 4 mile recovery run just to keep the legs moving, finishing my week with 21 easy and controlled miles. I am feeling rested, my legs are ready to run, and my excitement is finally beginning to build.

I can't wait to hit the expo tomorrow morning and meet up with the folks I've been virtually training with on the Runners World forums, grab some lunch at the Reading Terminal (I love that place!) and then meet up with a couple fellow forumites from Kickrunners for pre-race dinner. Race morning I'm meeting up with a High School classmate of mine whom I haven't seen in 22 years but have been talking with on Facebook for the past year. We're planning on running together. This is going to be a really fun weekend! Now all I have to do is pack.

Packing List:

sneakers (NB769)
shorts (black UA)
short sleeve shirt (teal UA)
arm sleeves
race belt
S! Caps
Powerbar gels
Nathan handheld
Garmin
race confirmation email
compression socks
camera
directions for getting around
chocolate Myoplex for after the race
energy bars
couple bottles of water
my happy, confident attitude
all the good vibes received from everyone


Okay, what am I forgetting?