It's race week...

Well just under 6 days from now I'll be lined up and ready to race the Shamrock Marathon! YIKES!! My last full marathon was October 31, 2010...that seems like such a long time ago. We are heading down around 10AM on Saturday and will go straight to packet pick up and then on to the hotels. I wish Carol and Pam were staying in the same hotel I was but I found out the other day that Linda and Christy would be. I'm just veryhappy that my hotel is at/near the start finish. Especially after race end! Of coruse, I'll have to make my way from the finisher's party anyway....which I know can be a long walk through the sand!

I had my final long run on Saturday - 10 miles. It went very well. I'm trying not to be overly confident for this weekend but just...confident. It seems I really do have my nutrition worked out, so that is good. Starting today I'll be hydrating - using nuun - the electrolyte enhanced drink tabs. I will also start my carb loading process - but not to the extent I did the week before Ironman Arizona. Boy - did that seem like a LOT of carbs! Almost to the extent I felt sick! But I guess that worked out in the end.

Non-training news: I had an especially fun weekend! It all started on Saturday after my run!

First I celebrated a friend's birthday (it was back in October)

by going on a 3-hour tour (and yes we had lyrics to the tune of the Gilligan's Island theme) of Washington, DC by Segway! It was the birthday girl, me, and two of her friends.

So. Much. FUN!

The individual segways had names! Mine was 'Ole Glory'. We also had Riggins and...I forget the other two. Oh well. But all DC-related names!

Then on Sunday, another "S" word! I went to an indoor shooting range

with my son, my friend's husband, and their son. I've been thinking of

getting a gun, so...this was a great opportunity to try out some firearms!

And Carol's husband Tim is going to take us sometime, too! More fun!

Anyway, back to the guns! On Sunday I tried out 3 different semi-

automatic hand guns (two 9mm (Luger and Glock) and one 22 caliber

(Luger with a sight) - if I'm getting it all correct) as well as one AR-15

rifle, pictured here. I didn't particularly like the rifle. Yet. The third

handgun I tried (the Glock) was my favorite.

I'm looking forward to trying out more!

So back to the regular stuff. I cannot believe nearly an entire year has gone by since last year's Shamrock weekend. When I deferred to this year's race it seemed like so far away. But so much has happened since then! And now, in just 4 months and 11 days I'll be in the midst of Ironman Lake Placid. But...first things first! The Shamrock Marathon! I will be a little sad that only a part of Team Z will be racing Shamrock. One part will be staying local for the Rock N Roll USA Marathon and Half while another part of the team will be headed to the Rev3 Costa Rica 70.3 and 32 events.

Happy and Healthy Training and Racing!!