The countdown has begun!

Last night marked the first night I need a good night's sleep for sure and I got it. Now I need a good night's sleep tonight. I suspect that I will sleep just fine on Saturday night as this Sunday's Des Moines (half) marathon is not my first rodeo, so to speak. I do get nervous, but I don't think I'll be so nervous that it will keep me awake. Then again, this Sunday is a first for me with new goals and so I could be up staring out the window at two o'clock in the morning praying for a heat wave and no cold, arctic blast roaring out of Canada.

No offense to the Canadian readers, but seriously? Could you keep that to yourself this year? At least this weekend? Stop being so generous, eh?

My goals for this marathon include one thing brand new to me. I am not going to run at all. This is big for me as I have never done an event without running. I walk in training and hardly run, so I will be fine. Right? No obsessive competitive problems here. No, sir.

Another new thing is that I am, for the very first time ever, participating with someone. Like a partner, like someone who will be in an event for the first time EVER. How exciting and cool is that? I love stuff like that! I love being around when people do something they've never done before. Looking forward to this part of it. We've walked together plenty and we're good friends, so we'll talk (or not) and we'll keep stride (or not) and we'll bicker (or not) and be supportive (always). It will be fun. New, but fun.

So my goals are as follows: do not run no matter how insane I feel, no matter how irritated I get (the major cause of my running in all earlier events) or how cold I am. Get Julie across the finish line, which frankly, she could totally do without me. Finish and have fun.

On being irritated, I don't want you to think that I am a snarky, mean person although at times I excel in these areas. I get "irritated" by people ahead of me who dawdle, talk excessively, walk more than two abreast, have a funny gallop to their stride, have a crooked bra strap, a flappy ponytail or they stomp their feet when they run. In other words, I use it as motivation to get ahead of them. It isn't personal. Don't be sensitive!

I'm not going to run past you and say, "Get a haircut!" or anything like that. That would be rude.

Onto the part where I mention being cold. This Sunday will be a learning experience for me as I have never walked in an event in the cold before. I ran last Thanksgiving and Valentine's Day - both cold, both bundled up, but you can get warm running. I do have a sheddable layer that I can throw to the ground, but I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that I will not shed much, if any of that layer. I will be in a hot pink shirt and a hot pink hat in case you're there looking for me.

Come to think of it, the Fourth of July run was pretty cold and I ran in pants and a jacket and a hat.