Week 8 DRHM Training - Race Week

Tomorrow I'm going to be running my first half marathon in nearly 9 months and to be honest, I'm a little nervous. Chalk it down to my nervous energy maybe but I've checked off all my pre-race activities that normally take me the whole day.

Collect bib & race kit - DONE
Clean Shoes - DONE
Sort out Race Gear - DONE
Take Picture of Race Gear & Post on Instagram - DONE
Buy Bananas, Peanut Butter for pre race snack - DONE
Stretching / Yoga - DONE
Figure out transport to Race Venue - DONE
Suss out race route - DONE
Sort Music - DONE

Yep. Its been a productive morning.

During the week I have been allowing the butterfly population in my stomach grow. Been doing some strength training and ran a short 3K (sans music, sans gadgets - it was weird!) which should have helped with the breeding insects but everytime I thought of the race or read a notification or post about it, they just kept multiplying unheeded.

Which brings me back to today. Jittery. So jittery.

I worked out the route on google maps against the rather skeletal plan published by the event organizers. I did it mainly so I could mentally visualize the kilometer markers and know the distance covered during the race just in case my app froze (which it does quite often).

My working shows the route to be only around 19K. I worked it out as per the landmarks given on their map. Start at Olcott school, turn down 4th avenue, down Elliots beach, back up 5th Avenue, along 3rd & Besant Avenue, to Adyar circle, then Madhya Kailash, then Tidel Park, loop back to Adyar, cross the Adyar Bridge run along MRC Nagar (three little loops there), back along Adyar bridge, Besant Avenue, 3rd Avenue and finish back at Olcott School.  

I can understand my workings to be off by a couple of hundred meters maybe but to be off by 2K? Thats fishy. Either google is horribly wrong or I have misread the DRHM map. Has to be the latter. In any case I have to make damn sure that I don't miss out any loops and that I cross all the timing mats correctly.

I've been enjoying carb loading today. I love carb loading because I get to treat myself with things that I normally steer away from. Nothing too disastorous (like pizzas & junk) but things like chocolate (mostly dark), sweetened yogurt, extra helpings of rice, fruit juice, peanut butter. Later I might just indulge in some ice cream. :-)

My shoes are cleaned, my race gear is all set (I'm loving this particular outfit) now all thats left is to stretch some more, eat some more, relax and hit the bed by 7:00

Current Butterfly population: Fifty million.