Ground Rules

Snazzy aren't they?  One week from tomorrow those little babies up there are joining my cousin Alyson at the Oleksak Lumber Half Marathon.  Aly was inspired by my run at the Raleigh Half in November and decided to run a half marathon of her own.  I realized that unless I'm on a training schedule I don't work out and asked if she needed some company.  The timing of this race is perfect because it falls during Katherine's spring vacation from school.  Unfortunately since it is tax season, Ted won't be able to make the trip with us.  So Katherine, Teddy and I will be flying up to Papa and Gram's house on Friday evening.  This marks Teddy's first time on an airplane.  Katherine is thrilled to play the big sister role and show him the ropes of flying.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that both kids fall asleep on the plane.

So far the weather forecast for race day is partly cloudy, high of 56 degrees. Perfect.  I think we're both looking forward to it. However, before Aly and I even cross the start line there are a few "rules" that we need to go over.  These rules are for ourselves as much as they are for anyone who's cheering us on.  Heaven forbid we take ourselves too seriously.

1. We are in this together, meaning, we start together, we finish together, we curse the day we thought this was a good idea together.
2. The goal is to finish.  Got that?  Finish.  Ok, ok we know that we need to run as much as possible and yes we want to have a halfway decent run at that.  All this training wasn't for nothing.  But we're also not going to beat ourselves up if we reach a point and decide we need to walk it in.
3. We cheer ourselves at every mile marker...all 13 of them.
4. Grunting, groaning, random farting, burping and the odd expletive are welcome, encouraged and guaranteed to happen.  In other words, this isn't going to pretty people.  If you have a problem with it, we don't care.  We're running the 13 miles, not you.
5. If it's raining or (God forbid) snowing at race time, rest assured we won't be there.  We'll skip right to the celebratory burger and milkshake at Five Guys because, hey, all that training deserves a celebration.  If we really feel we need a workout before the meal, we can join the mall walkers...shopping is like a marathon sometimes, isn't it?

Now that the rules are covered we welcome any and all well wishes.  And if you're in Western Mass on April 1st (we're a couple of fools aren't we?) with nothing to do come on down, take a place on the route and cheer us on in person. You already know what my sneaks look like.  We can't promise we'll have the physical or mental capacity to smile and wave as we run by but I promise you we are grateful for the encouragement.