I’m preparing for a 21 mile run this Saturday. Yes, preparing. You have to be ready physically and mentally to run, walk or simply move your body that far.

It’s my last long run before the Napa Valley Marathon on March 3, then it’s taper time. I felt great last Friday during my 18-miler so I’m heading into this run with positive vibes. I doing the miles with Get Fit Atlanta. I personally wouldn’t want to do a training run that long solo. In this case there’s power in numbers – the support, camaraderie, and good conversation helps those miles fly by. I also love running with the group because they’re super smart people – I learn something about running or just life every time I’m with them. I love groups for safety reasons, too. Lots of things could happen when you’re putting in that much mileage. It’s great to have folks around to make sure everyone is OK.

This is Lola, my Garmin, the last time I ran 21 miles prepping for the Chicago Marathon.

Here are a few things I’m doing this week to prepare for my last and longest marathon training run …

Eating right. I haven’t been as consistent with clean eating as I would like to be, but training for this marathon is helping because I’ve got to eat right to get through my long runs. I’ll be consuming lean proteins, brown or wheat carbs and lots of fruits and veggies over the next few days. No sweets or sugars to drag me down. And, yes, I do carb load – within reason – the night before. I normally eat spaghetti and clam sauce or a traditional meat sauce and some broccoli. YUM!

Get my zzz’s. Ah, sleep. It’s a beautiful thing. I would take a nap every day if I could. Maybe once I’m completely organized I’ll schedule that into my routine. In the meantime, I’ll make sure to get enough sleep leading up to this Saturday. I don’t want to drive 21 miles when I’m sleep deprived – so you know I definitely don’t want to run it. Ahem.

Gather my gear. I already went to the store and stocked up on my favorite running gels. On Friday morning I’ll make sure that everything I need is ready. What I’m wearing, eating and even directions to the run programmed in my GPS will be taken care of on Friday so I don’t have anything to worry about.

Relax. I actually do this for fun. I’m not going to win, nobody is paying me – in fact I paid a pretty penny for a race registration to run for 5+ hours. Go figure. My running peeps understand this madness. I chose to do this and I want to enjoy it. There’s no need to stress. I believe in positive attracts positive. It’s going to be a fantastic run. And, if something does happen to go wrong – stressing about it wouldn’t make it any better.

Winks & Smiles,