Train-rain-train & more rain...

It's spring in Oregon. What does that mean? Small breaks of sunshine or hope as I like to call, them break through the constant drizzle of those last remnants of winter’s rain. Spring also brings my first 1/2 marathon. The Race for the Roses is taking place April 5th and I have just a bit of fear in my heart. With two weeks left before the big race I have time to complete my training. Today I ran the insane distance of 11 miles. My body responded wonderfully, but my mind continued to protest the entire time. Small tweaks of the knee or ankle are to be expected. The occasional side stitch is well known, as well as producing enough sweat to soak the death valley - all these physical thing are well known and understood by me. But the mind is truly evil. Will I be able to run this distance outside? Is the treadmill lying to me and I have really only completed 5 miles to the 11 it’s stating? Is my IPod Nike+ rounding up my miles (they do, by they way). My poor mother, who is flying out to see this historic event; what the hell is she going to do for 3 hours while I run around Portland?! Doubt is plaguing me. I will continue to run and proceed with my training. I still want to run that marathon - but all this running is getting just a tad bit old. And when do I hit the point when I can eat anything I want and be thin?! Hopefully this race will inspire me; much like my other first distance races did. Either way I'll still get my t-shirt and get to hang with mom - not a bad deal!