Running Update #6

Dear Readers,

Important update! If you read any of this post, read this next paragraph:

If you would like to know how my race is going as I am running it, you can sign up at this website. There, you can elect to have a text message or an email notification when I cross the following checkpoints: Starting Line, 10K (6.2mi), 13.1mi, 30K (18.6mi), and Finish Line. THIS IS COMPLETELY FREE (other than your normal texting fees) and all you need to do is sign in using an email address. Enter your mobile number or email address at which you'd prefer to get the update, and make sure to enter my name: Kevin Franke. If you know anyone else that is running, you can get updates for them, too. Again, click here to track my progress during the race!

Marathon: T-minus 5 days. Wow. I am really approaching freak out time. For a week or two, it's simply been a low, ominous feeling of doom, but now it is materializing itself rather nicely into a very real and very legitimate menace to my poor, defenseless body and mind.

Of course, I'm being dramatic. But, as throughout the entire training process, worry has been my biggest enemy. And I always feel I have something to worry about. Especially now - my right knee is clicking all the time, my right foot arch is very tender and sore, my left hip flexor is pinched, and the ligaments along the back of both of my knees are constantly tightening up. Yeah, I don't like it. I fear that *something* is going crap out during the race - and I don't know how I'm going to handle that.

So, I guess the way to handle it is to not worry about it, stretch the best I can every day, go to physical therapy this week, and just go for it! I will be equipped with plentiful ibuprofen before and during the run, I will have food and water, and thousands upon thousands of people surrounding me. Let's all keep our fingers crossed!

Oh, let's all keep our fingers crossed for Kat to get well soon. Yesterday, she came down with either a real nasty cold or the flu. She's right in the thick of the "super icky" part of being sick. It totally sucks, and I'm not even sick like she is.

Come to think of it, I'd really like to keep it that way. Running the marathon on Sunday with the flu does not sound appealing to me.

Finally, Dear Readers, I would like to remind you that I am still raising funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (donate here). If you have wanted to donate, but haven't had a chance, the time is now. I would love to know that I have reached my fundraising goal by race day - it would be a great source of inspiration and motivation for me during the race, and, at the very least, one less thing to worry about. You know, because I tend to worry excessively. Excessively.

A lot.

Until next time, Dear Readers,

Your Chronically Worrisome Boy,

Kevin