Phone it in or..Charlevoix T-6

"Shift from thinking to feeling-feel yourself accomplishing your goal. Take that feeling out of your head and put it into your heart. Embrace it as reality." 

Erin Taylor, founder and head coach of Jasyoga 

The adventure is at single digits. Charlevoix Marathon T-6 days. 

The great debate; fight with every cell in me to see what I have, 

OR play it safe, call it in,  run Nita run, save a little back for fun, smiles and no great failure?

If you don't set your goals too high then you never fall that hard.  

The harder you fall, the more it hurts. 

What to do? 

We must ask ourselves this a dozen times a day. 

Just the thought of lining up to the starting line rattles me. The early morning sun creeping over us as the runners line up, quickly filling up the corrals. The clamor of excited runners chattering, laughing and studying you. You see the eyes look you over and settle in on your bib. In seconds, you notice they are  exploring your age and distance and then their eyes glance back at you, matching it all together. 

You just smile. 

That's what I do. I smile. 

Nervous, I smile. 

Anxious, I smile.

Excited. I smile. 

In 6 days,  I will be running next to Lacey. I am so tickled. 

We had our final long run, a whopping 8 miles Saturday. We met at GAC, starting slow we quickly picked up our pace. We were all a bit foot loose and fancy. Chris kept gauge on our pace reminding us to slow it down. 

I was happy we had started early and finished early as the temps kept getting hotter. 

Lacey, Chris and I, That's a wrap!

There is Joy in the Journey. 

I find myself trying not to get discouraged as I have tried to clean up my marathon failure back in February. 

Charlevoix is a chance to recover. It is a out and back, Lacey, Chris, Antonio and Doug are going to be lined up with me. I am really hoping I don't give Doug and Antonio any material to tease me and hoping they give me some so I can tease them! 

The weather looks AWESOME! 71'! 

I have had so much fun training for Charlevoix with these two. It felt great to feel a little bit of normalcy with last few weeks. Between feeling human again, and Covid taking a back burner running gave me so much joy. 

Timing is everything. There is a season for everything and a time for every matter under the heavens, Ecc. 3:1. 

Course Description: "All courses start and end at the Draw Bridge in downtown Charlevoix.  The course is primarily fast and flat, unless you're from Florida, then you will feel like you're climbing Everest around the 11 mile mark.  We have an incredibly high rate of Boston Marathon qualifying times  (18% of the entire field) on this course because it is very fast. 
The courses venture through the historic neighborhoods of Charlevoix which provides great shade especially early in the morning, and then out onto our paved trail system which follows the shoreline of Lake Michigan.  There is approximately four miles of running on our wooden bridge which is a great relief for the knees!  All courses are an out-and-back style course which keeps the course feeling energetic but not over crowded." 

RUNDOWN:
Monday: 6miles
Tuesday:REST
Wednesday: 4m
Thursday: 14.5 ( Laceys long run) 
Friday: REST
Saturday: 8.3
Sunday: REST

TOTAL MILES: 32.8

Final touches: 

I have my shorts for the marathon. I have to find a white tank top now. I will try to share it later this week when it is all put together. Lacey and I decided to sneak out early! we are leaving now Thursday night. 

Anyone have any suggestions on a good place to eat in Charlevoix or Petoskey?

So do I phone it in for fun, or die trying to see what is in the tank? 

Anita~