One week until 10-10-10

I can't believe that in 5 more sleeps I will be heading to Chicago to run the Chicago Marathon on 10-10-10. I signed up for this race back in February (9 months ago) when my friends (Alicia & Catherine) and I decided that we wanted to run in a big race. I remember staying up until midnight the night when registration opened for this race. We were told this race always sells out early so we wanted to make sure that we all got registered. We are now 3 individuals who will be making up the over 40,000 runners that will be participating in this run.

After 21 weeks of training, 2 amazing weeks at Fitness Ridge I know I'm ready for this run. I ran my first marathon in 2007 and even having completing one previously I know that this race will be a challenge but I know I can do this. I've improved so much since 2007 and I can't wait to so what I'm able to accomplish. I set some goals for myself with this run both a time I want to achieve and a weight goal I wanted to reach by the time this race arrived. I'be been home from FR for almost 2 months and I'm so happy to say that I'm only 2 pounds away from my goal I set out for myself for Chicago. In total I've lost 15 pounds since August 1, 2010 and I'm so proud of what I have been able to accomplish in this short period of time.

Last weekend I ran the Scotiabank Waterfront 1/2 marathon in Toronto. This was the goal race for my marathon group and since the majority of the people I have trained with over the past 21 weeks were running in this race I wanted to make sure I was there to cheer everyone on. I was scheduled to run 23km that day anyways so the 1/2 worked right into the schedule. I had a great run and it was so nice to be relaxed and just enjoy the race. I made sure I slowed it down because this was still a training run which was suppose to be long and slow. Once I finished I found at spot at the 100m mark to the finish line and cheered all my friends on. I'm so proud of every........they all completed the race and did an amazing job.

Megan, Catherine and me at the start line

Catherine, Lish and I also found our shirts we are going to wear in Chicago a the expo in Toronto. We really wanted to represent our country and wear Canada gear but was having trouble finding anything we liked and in the right sizing for all of us. Catherine found these amazing shirts at One More Mile and they had all the right sizing for all of us. Yesterday, we did some minor modifications to the shirts and ironed on our names and a nice little slogan on the back. We've been told our bib numbers don't have our names printed on them so we wanted to make sure we had a way for people to cheer us on. I'm so happy with how they turned out and I know all of us are going to look amazing on race day.

The past two days the weather has been horrible with lots of ran in much colder temperatures. Yesterday morning I was scheduled to run 16km. When I woke up and saw the rain and felt how cold it was I really was tempted not to run but I need once I got out there it would be that bad. I put my gear on and headed out to get my last longer run done before the big day. I printed off a pace band for my marathon race pace and followed it and was able to stick to it throughout my run. This morning I participated in the CIBC Run for the Cure......it was a fun 5km run in yet again very wet cold weather. I was part of team In It For ING! Our team did such an amazing job raising over $20,000 for the cause and it was so wonderful to see everyone out their supporting our good friend Ingrid who is living with this disease.

Myself, Ingrid and Rita

I have a busy week of work ahead of my with our new Win A Million Lottery program launching on Thursday. I need to make sure I stay hydrated, carb load and get lots of sleep.