The Day Before Race Day

I've never been one to get super nervous and antsy before a race.  Excited for it but not jittery.

Of course I'm always afraid I'll forget something, but I assume that stems from the fact that I always have a purse packed with enough to sustain the herd in just about any situation, and when I'm without that (and kids hanging off every limb) I feel naked.  Though I'm still lacking bandaids.  What kind of mom has 9 kids and doesn't carry a bandaid in her purse?  Oh yeah, me.  We are totally set with the 6 different lip glosses and various sizes of diapers though.  And the protein bars, fruit leathers and cheerios have saved the day on more than one occasion.

So it's kind of bugging me that I'm very jittery today.

Half marathon tomorrow morning.  I'm excited for it.  I've actually only run one official half marathon before.  It was my first double digit run.  Ever.  And it was awesome.  The next year I ran my own personal Maverick Mama half, but it was just me proving something ridiculous to myself, nothing official.  So tomorrow I will race 13.1 for only the second time, despite having run the distance-and quite a bit further-a number of times, ventured into relay, checked off marathon, and made plans to jump to ultra marathon. Not till next fall, but I'm scoping them out.  (Yes really.  Anyone who can help reassure hubby and get him on board wiht the fact that it will not in fact kill me, please let me know.)

I have the shirt ready, this gem from the fabulous SBS and Dimity at AnotherMotherRunner.
I have the shoes ready, the turquoise and lime Mizunos that make my feet sing with joy.
I'm still trying to pick which skirt, but I think I'm going purple over pink.  Ah, the difficult decisions of a Friday afternoon.
The never fail pre-race dinner is sitting here waiting to be baked.  Digiorno.  Yep, the frozen pizza.  No pasta here.  Hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!
Everything else I could possibly need it set and ready to go.

So why the nerves?
Got me.
The distance doesn't worry me, as long weekend runs have been back in the double digits for a while.

Maybe it's that I will be away from Emily for at least 4hrs tomorrow?  The longest since she was born? Maybe it's the whole trying to figure out the optimal time to nurse before I leave and get her back to sleep so she'll be happy (and mostly sleep) while I'm gone?
Maybe it's just the fact that I have to leave by 4:45.  That's early.

I think part of it may be that I have a number I want to hit.  I didn't race a half last year (obviously) and that's when I was really running well.  I know I could have blown my one previous half finish time completely out of the water.  By at least 20 minutes, and that's huge.  I have a finish time I want to hit, but I'm not sure if I can.  I should be realistic and realize that if I beat my first finish time by even one second it will still be a PR, and pretty darn awesome for having a 3 month old baby.  I am debating leaving the Garmin at home and just running by feel, but I'm not sure if that would be better or worse.

Really I should just get out there and enjoy running in a beautiful place on what should be a beautiful morning.  Assuming the rain coming down now doesn't continue into tomorrow...
Two-ish hours of being out and soaking up the atmosphere is quite a treat, and a fitting reward for surviving the first two weeks back to school.  So that is what I will remind myself is the number one goal.  Go run, have fun.

And appreciate the fact that for a runner, my feet don't look too terribly bad.  

Sparkly toes are fast toes, right?