10/10/10

After spending a long week in DC not for vacation, the New DeLews are back in Chicago and eagerly preparing for the much anticipated event of the fall- The Chicago Marathon!! This Sunday, 10/10/10 I will be running my first ever marathon (26.2 looooong miles) alongside 45,000 runners and over 1 million cheering fans. Needless to say, this is super exciting. There’s a lot of mental psyching up and planning that goes into this event, so I’m going to run over my little checklist:

The Last Supper (Saturday PM): Carbload! Homemade lasagna, bread, salad, and most importantly- NO WINE.

The Last Breakfast (Sunday AM): 2 scrambled eggs with a bit o’ cheese in a whole wheat pita. And most importantly- Coffee. Got to get things moving- in every possible way.

Music Playlist: Start off with all three volumes of the Glee Soundtrack (should last me about 2 hours), then depending on my mood, either go Gospel music or angry white boy music

Outfit: a bright blue running shirt with my name on it, black shorts, running shoes, red anti-sweat headband

Gear: running belt with tons o’ nutritional goos, cell phone, ipod shuffle, and plenty o’ anti-chafing lube (I’m not going to say any more about that one. But did you ever expect to see the word ‘lube’ on the New DeLews’ blog?)

Pacing: I’m running the marathon with my partner in crime, Ashley. Our goal pace is 9:30 minutes per mile, which would allow us to finish the race in a mere 4 hours and 9 minutes. Although the race officially starts at 7:30am, we most likely won’t cross the start line for quite a while. But if we cross the start line at 7:50am, we will be finished by 12:00pm sharp!! Here’s to hoping!

Meeting up: The Other DeLew will be trekking around the city with my lovely Mama George, finding strategic places to cheer! The Main DeLews will join in the cheering, along with a couple other friends. Every time I think about seeing friends and family on the sideline, I get a little choked up. I’ve been so blessed by people’s support over the past few months.

Post-Marathon Crash: Stumble back to the Medill and order out tons o’ food. And celebrate with fam and friends. Perhaps with wine.

Shout-out: And I must thank the lovely Other DeLew. Mark has been amazing- waking up early to run before work, biking alongside me on the long runs, caring for me when I got heat exhaustion, and constantly encouraging me to train hard and well. I could not have done this without him.

We’ll see how this Sunday goes. 10/10/10- bring it on!