TOMORROW IS THE BIG DAY!! What I'm going to give myself ...

On Wednesday, there was a great FaceBook post on the Run Like A MotherThe question was posed:  What treats have you given yourself for getting through training or a race?  That got me to thinking, as posts like this often do.  Well, money is a bit tight in TurtleLand these days (as it is for a lot of us, I think), so after completing tomorrow's BIG RACE (the Charlottesville 10-Miler, for anyone who might not know what has occupied my every thought and action for the past 24 weeks!), I will not be buying myself anything.  However, I am going to give myself TWO very important things.  

FIRST, I am going to GIVE MYSELF A BREAK.  Yeah, I really am.  No matter how hard it is.  I am going to look at my chunky, cottage-cheese thighs and I will LOVE those thighs for having the power to get me through an intensive training program and a hilly, challenging ten mile race.  

I am going to look at my race time and I will LOVE the fact that I ran faster than I thought I could.  I am NOT NOT NOT going to look at anyone else's times, anyone else's blogs, and think, "Gosh, I wish I were that fast."  Nope, not gonna do it.  I'm going to be absolutely freaking grateful that at age 45 I can run ten miles.  And that 24 weeks ago, I was running in the 13:00/mile range, and am now in the 10:30 to 11:30 range.  That's great.  You run a 7:30 mile?  That's fabulous!  I don't, but I'm still a runner!

When my dear husband and darling daughters tell me how proud they are of me, I am going to say, "THANKS!  I am proud of me, too!"  And I'm going to mean it!

SECONDLY, I am going to GIVE MYSELF THE GIFT OF BETTER EATING.  I have been doing well during the training, but definitely not as well as I know I could.  That book I started writing a few years ago?  I'm going to finish it, and the only way to do that is to get myself back on track.  Maybe that will mean going back to Weight Watchers, or maybe it will just mean more accountability to myself.  I've done it before, and I've been happier 5 or 6 pounds lighter.  And yes, this is most assuredly a gift.  If you've walked this path, you know what I mean.  Would accepting myself at this particular weight be easier?  You bet.  But having given this a lot of thought since I posted about it recently, I decided that I feel just a little ... puffier ... than I would like.  

I will post a race recap sometime in the next couple of days, if you would like to see how things go for me tomorrow.  In the meantime, happy running!