Get Ready

Photo: After 10 at Lake Lansing. Photo Credit: Dane Robison


So Sunday, September 28, 2008, is my husband's 28th birthday. He'll turn 41. That's tomorrow.

I also run my first-ever half marathon tomorrow morning. I'm running the Capital City River Run in Lansing, Mich., and my husband — even before I decided to run it — volunteered to be the race's official photographer. So he and a small crew of shooters are going out to celebrate his birthday by snapping away at a bunch of half-marathoners. Strange.

But then again, he thinks I'm kind of strange, the way I've been so obsessed with sticking to my training.

"You're a freak," he'd joke when I'd log in my miles or tell him I had a 12-mile run to do.

I'm nervous, I won't lie. I've been thinking about running this baby for two years now. I've been seriously training for it since January. Last week when I ran, I hit the wall. Last week I had a tough time kicking three miles — three! I also started to notice weird pinches here and there. My left ankle has been giving me a lot of trouble today.

Other runners are in the same boat. Hips, ankles, knees — you name it. It's been a long running season, and the body can only take so much. But I've GOT to do this thing. And the Run Like a Girl in October.

My plan: Take it slow and easy, try to keep a steady pace. I'll listen to my body, but I'll also talk to myself.

"You can do it, Lolo. Come on, girl, you can do this."

The fact is, it's not that I think I can. I know I can.