Big Dance is one week!!!

It's my final Sunday before the Honolulu Marathon. I thought this day would never come and suddenly it's here!!!  I am still in totally EXCITED mode but will soon be in total freak out mode for sure!!!

The plan from here on out is to try and stay HEALTHY, relaxed, and to figure out our plan for Sunday morning.  Running with 35,000 others on a tiny planet is sure to spell HEADACHE!!!

For my final Sunday Training Run the plan was to get an early start, park at Ala Moana then run the start of the Honolulu Marathon Route to Kapiolani Park.  In all my training I have yet to run this route.  I was supposed to get up at 4:30 am, leave the house by 5:15 and start running at 6:00 am to get to the park by 7:30.  It's about a 7 mile run.  

Well, due to a long family day yesterday I snoozed twice and by the time hubby and I were on our way we were already behind schedule.  

This was hubby's first run back since injury the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  We weren't sure how he would hold up.  Turns out he did pretty well, however, our pace was a good 1:30-2:00 per mile off our normal pace and we were way behind schedule. So, I had to abandon my plan of running the first 1/3 of the route and we jumped in the car, skipping the two miles between Ala Moana and Kapiolani Park and drove to our destination.

At 7:30 Dr. Scaff, founder of the Honolulu Marathon Clinic, and author of, "Your First Marathon — The Last Word in Long-Distance Running" would be giving his annual talk about preparing for the marathon.  I am sooo glad that I went as I learned a lot about nutrition leading up to race day and things to do to make my finishing picture look super awesome!!!  Hearing Dr. Scaff talk was very inspiring and encouraging and was exactly what I needed to hear this morning!  I am so glad we made it.

After his talk I decided to conquer Diamond Head one last time and set off running up the great hill.  My plan is to be mentally tough about own this hill as ascending it at mile 24 will be sure to be a challenge.  I ran up the hill hard, down the hill nice, turned around, and ran back up the hill hard again.  During this run I saw Gladys, the woman in her 90's who holds the record for oldest female Marathon completer, and Daniel Dae Kim!!!!  With that done, I felt a little more ready for next Sunday!!!

With 8.5 miles done today it was time to have  a nice breakfast and we joined our favorite running couple to fuel our bodies.