I saw a statistic yesterday that both thrilled and freaked me out a little…

50 Days Until the Los Angeles Marathon.

March 9th is fast approaching.

Now this is not my first time to the marathon rodeo (it’ll actually be my 6^th), but I still get that growing excited/scared feeling as it gets closer. By March 9^th, I’ll have whipped myself into a frenzy. I apologize in advance to my friends who will have to endure this, but at this point they’re used to it and can selectively tune me out when I go off on my hydration and taper tangents.

And this week things got real. For starters, I received my race confirmation the other day. Yup, I’m registered and official. I also reserved my parking spot for race day (this is Los Angeles remember).

In addition, yesterday was the confirmation deadline for my marathon fundraising for (T2) Team To End AIDS. Each January you sign a document promising to reach the fundraising minimum by race day. Fortunately, I started fundraising early this time around and thanks to the generosity of my friends and family, I’ve already reached and surpassed my fundraising goal.

And today our T2 group runs 17 miles. That’s 3-hours of pounding the pavement around Burbank and Glendale. We’re past the halfway mark distance wise, but still have quite a ways to go… and only 7 weeks to get into marathon shape. As we all know, race day will be here before we know it.

At least it’s not 18 miles.

An added wrinkle for today’s run will be the heat as it’s unseasonably warm out this weekend and temps may get up into the 80s before we’re done. Running in the heat requires you to take it slower and drink even more to make up for what you sweat out. And in my case, I’ll need to take salt packets to make sure my sodium level doesn’t drop too far.

While a long run in adverse conditions can be trying and more painful than normal, they do serve an important purpose. On race day you never know what the weather will be like… cold, hot, windy, raining (or a combination). You don’t always run in ideal conditions, so getting a pre-emptive taste of discomfort can aid you on race day and save you from getting tangled in the weeds.

Funny thing is in just 4 short weeks we’ll be running 23 miles and reminiscing about the day we did that short 17-mile fun run.

Yup, it just got real.

Run on!

(How far are you running today or tomorrow?)