I’m glad i started marathon training early. In the past five months I’ve had fires, a death and mom’s stroke to contend with. These long Saturday runs are of course important in order to build stamina, but close to impossible when something comes up. I started training a few weeks early and took off one week for a cold that I couldn’t get over and one long run because of the fires.

I’m down to the wire now. The race is in just six short weeks. I have two long runs left, a 19 and a 21. Next week should be my 19 but I’m heading to Florida to help my mom, who is being moved to a rehab facility tomorrow. So I don’t know how long I will make it. I’m planning a 15 miler, and then a 20 miler. Not what I wanted to do, but that’s not the important thing now, of course. Puts it all into perspective. we can train and train, and sometimes, something out of the blue can  happen, something unexpected, and there it all goes.

I’m not complaining. Life is life. I’ll keep running, and I’m going to run this marathon. I don’t care if I only train to 17 miles; my friend trained to 16 and ran one, and while it wasn’t the best idea in the world, she did. I’ve run 17.5 miles; I’ll do one twenty miler before the big day and then I’ll do the 26.

Tomorrow I should do 13; that won’t be tough. I need to get out and clear my head. With everything that has been going on, I’m feeling a little claustrophobic. I need to put on my shoes and go.

I’ve already decided that I’m going to put on the back of my shirt: For Mom: Strokes Suck! on race day, along with Go Mommy and my two daughters’ hand prints.

For now, though, I’m tired. Dealing with all of this that my poor mom has suffered has drained me much more than a 17 mile run. But we are going to kick this stroke’s ass, and then keep going.

As I always say those last few miles of a very long run, I just have to “Get it done.”