This Grrrl Runs: Big Day Tomorrow

It's 9:30pm and I am headed to bed. I've had nothing to drink today but LOTS of water, and I've eaten really healthy food all day (remembering to "eat like you're in training" - because I am in training.). The alarm is set for 4:35am, my gear is laid out and ready, clothes, shoes, iPod loaded with my running playlist, stopwatch, PowerBars, and a change of clothes for after the race. Tomorrow is my longest race of the season, a 10K - about 6.2 miles! It's my second time on this course and I'm hoping for a PR - wish me luck!!

But it turns out tomorrow will be a HUGE day for several reasons!

1) I get to see an old college friend before and after the race - it's been at least 10 years since we last got together, and I'm super excited to have a chance to catch up!

2) After the race, I'll drive the 60 miles home and try to squeeze in a nap, before heading 60 miles the other direction: Another friend of ours is having a surprise WEDDING tomorrow afternoon - they just announced this morning, they're getting married in the afternoon and we're hitting the reception at 4pm. We've known them for many years and love them both dearly, can't believe they finally decided to tie the knot and determined to do it so quickly!! We'll get to see nearly EVERYONE we know tomorrow afternoon, and help celebrate our dear friends' long-overdue nuptials - I'm really looking forward to it, and it's such a wonderful unforeseen happy coincidence we were already planning to be in town, because...

3) A whole separate group of dear friends, former co-workers from my auditing / public accounting days, formed a band years ago - they're very good and we always enjoy seeing them play when they have a gig. Occupational hazard: they go on hiatus each year during Busy Season (what the rest of the world calls "tax season"). This weekend the band comes out from under the rock they've been hiding under for four months and has their first show of 2012 - we've been planning to attend for months. So after the race, after the (possible) nap, and after the surprise wedding reception, we'll head to a local watering hole and rock out with the band!!

4) Once we get home from this raucous and insanely busy day and night, I go straight to bed because I get up Sunday morning to catch a flight... another 60-mile drive to the airport and off to Cleveland I go for a week. My bags are already packed and ready to walk out the door.

I hope I have the stamina for all this: tomorrow I'll need to go non-stop (at top speed, no less, at least for the race!) like a kid who's still in college, not a woman in her mid-30's!

All I'll need is...

more coffee, please.