Week Twenty-Two:
Assessment
With just a
little over three months to go, it's time for assessments, where we look at how
we're coming along, where our training schedules are taking us, what needs improving,
and how we are feeling about our abilities.
Adrith
takes a long mountain hike that leaves her feeling well worn out after losing
the trail for a while.
"This
might be a good time to mention that I'd been lost on a mountain before. I started
thinking about that, and how hard it would be for someone who got hurt to get
help, and how soon it was getting dark these days. So, a third of a mile down
the mountain, I'm fighting against gravity, the lack of traction on my running
shoes, the excess weight dragging me down the mountain much more out of control
than I'd like to be, and a rising panic attack.
We
finally reached the snowmobile trail. By that time, my footfalls were coming down
right on top of the other - my stride wasn't even a foot long. I was being supported
on one side by my friend Kurt's walking stick, and on the other by my husband,
one of the Eagle Scouts that had gotten us into that whole mess. I can't even
say that I walked that last mile -- I don't know how I traversed it, but it sure
didn't feel like walking.
It took us THREE HOURS to get down a mountain it had only taken us two to get
up. For those of you keeping score at home, it took me five hours to walk five
miles. You may understand why I'm feeling a little ambivalent about the marathon,
and why the half-mary is suddenly looking so appealing." ~Adrith
Cat's
getting frustrated with rainy weather that keep sher from training, and struggles
to get her own bearings back and her goals into focus.
"Doing what feels like some
last minute readjusting. The deadline for telling our NF program director what
event we are going to do is in October -- just a week away. After consulting Adrith,
I went ahead and e-mailed Anita to tell her if at all possible I wanted to be
on the team for the half-marathon event. Which means I would be doing the same
event as my Patient Hero's mom ... I should call her up sometime soon and see
how they are doing. Meanwhile I am thinking of switching schedules -- I'll have
to work out the details of that later.
Rain
or no, we went to Disney yesterday as planned. We were tracing the half marathon
part of the route from the race course map and trying to take a photo at every
mile or so. We got some of the service roads from the monorail but obviously we
couldn't get it all. Enough to get an idea though. By next month we have to decide
what event we are doing (full or half) and depending on that I'll see if I have
to go out to the parks again and take some more photos." ~CatR
After
giving it much thought, we've confirmed that we will do the half-marathon event
for NF, told out NF program director, and now look at the next three months as
the home stretch in getting all this together.
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