Hooray for Relay!

Today 5 miles became a disappointment. Today was supposed to be my last long run (10.5 miles)...actually I should still be running as I type. Instead, I'm back, sitting at my computer all sweaty, and feel the urgent need to blog. I couldn't do it today...my tummy was hurting and mentally I couldn't get excited about running for 2 hours and then spending the subsequent hours feeling like shit. Let me tell you why I'm mentally losing it with this training...

When we signed up for the Chicago marathon, I was healthy and optimistic. I googled training programs and all. At the time, I was already training for my all-time favorite race, the Cooper River Bridge Run in Charleston. Well, as some/most of you in blog world know, the world/blogworld came to an end when I sprained my ankle both ways the Wednesday before the race. I decided to train for the half-marathon instead because of the long recovery period that ensued with the damn ankle (about 5 months). And I've been doing great with training. Last week I did a 9.5 mile long run. Until my guy friend Drew (former Chicago marathoner himself) dropped the BOMB on me: THERE IS NO CHICAGO HALF MARATHON. I REPEAT: THERE IS NO HALF MARATHON IN CHICAGO. I feel misled, scared, angry, unprepared, nervous, and stupid for not having checked this out before my training. Now I am faced with an impossible task: 26.2 miles. I can be successful running 13.1 miles; but that's not an option. The LaSalle Chicago Marathon is not allowing me to succeed. I just want to go up there, run a half-marathon, be in the paper, and say I did it. Now I'm afraid of failing because I'm just not ready. They are forcing me to flounder around in a race that is so completely daunting that I don't know what to do!

Until we thought of the RELAY idea. Faris runs 8.75 miles and passes the chip/number to Alison who runs 8.75 miles and passes the chip/number to Drew who runs like hell to the finish line! Team Faris Drew Alison hopefully finishes the marathon in under 5 hours! (...so we can continue shopping and enjoying Chicago of course ;)