My workouts continue to taper before the race.  I tried to push myself on Monday, but as always, the first mile is a warm up for my legs and they never seem to want to go all out in the beginning.  I picked up the pace at the end and finished with a sub-10 pace, which isn't terrible.  I'm aiming for a 10:00 pace for the first half...I know I can't keep that up for 26 miles.  I'm shooting for 11:00 pace for the whole thing.  We will see.

I continued my Tuesday ritual - gym circuit - and am happy with my results.  I'm doing more of every exercise in each 30 second bout than the previous week.  I'm up to 13 pushups in 30 seconds.  I had a tempo run on Wednesday on the treadmill.  I ran two 10 minute runs at 8 mph or 7:30 pace.  Lots of sweat, but definitely gives me some ideas for summer workouts.

I had to dive again this week, so I considered 3+ hours of cleaning windows and the bottom of the hippo pool as enough to cover the prescribed workout.  And to round out the week, a nice, relaxing 6 mile jaunt past a pond with a six(?) foot alligator in it.

I'm happy he didn't come out of the water...and amazed that I noticed him only on my second lap.  :)

I'm feeling excited and anxious for the race.  I've prepared well, but it's been a long 4+ months of training and a lot has happened in my life.  I can't wait for London!

Just got back from a night run.  Showered, gatoraded and about to resume watching Downton Abbey.  Hello, Jimmy Kent!

Tonight's run was great.  I felt good despite starting off slow, I ended up "getting" my 10 minute/mile pace by the end, so I was happy.  I did have a few unusual occurrences.  The first of which involved me getting spooked a bit.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself (expressions are weird, aren't they?) - that sounds like I'm having an out of body experience, when I really mean my story is getting ahead of itself.  Anyway, I often encounter wildlife on my runs - frogs, lizards, squirrels, rabbits, opossums, raccoons, armadillos, vultures, turtles, sandhill cranes, and I've even had an alligator on the sidewalk directly in front of me.  Now, I know it was probably a raccoon tonight, but whatever it was made enough racket in the bushes that I thought it was something much larger.  I was definitely looking over my shoulder.  After all, there have been a few black bears within an 8-mile radius of my apartment.  Needless to say, I thought how ironic it would be to get dragged off by a Florida panther (that's a mountain lion/puma/catamount/cougar for those of you not from Florida who decided to name a mountain lion a panther and confuse the world's population forever as illustrated by when someone says, "Look at that black panther," and the genius in the rooms says, "There's no such thing as a panther," and then someone from Florida pipes in with, "We have Florida panthers!").  But I digress...it would be fairly ironic to get dragged off by an Endangered Species while I'm training for a race to save another.

As if worrying about my imminent death and dismemberment wasn't enough, with half a mile to go, I wiped the sweat off my eyelid and took out a contact.  Miraculously, since I am on a budget after all - well ... "budget" - I was able to catch it in my hand (it fell out slowly) and carried it all the way home.  Boy, am I blind!  I eventually closed the contact-less eye and ran the rest of the way like that, but gee wilickers!  I cannot see very well at all without assistance.  Maybe it's time for Lasik.

Despite my troubles, I enjoyed the run.  I think I saw two cars - well, I know I saw the cars, I think there were two - the whole time I was out there...54 minutes.

Almost time for bed...but let's see what the Dowager Countess is doing first.