under 3 days to go!

With less than 3 days to go, I am getting very nervous/excited about my first marathon this Saturday.  I feel that I am in good enough shape to finish the marathon, but with some injuries through training, not as good of shape as I had hoped.  All part of the game though as I see it.  My sister, Melissa, has followed her marathon training program to a T and is doing great and injury free.  Check out her many blog posts, including this one.

I haven’t yet blogged about this, but after a short 3 mile run last Tuesday, my lower back hurt so bad I could barely move by Tuesday evening.  When I got home, Jenn said, “You can’t run a marathon like that.”  And she was right.  I needed to do something.  She suggested that I call her chiropractor, Dr. Adam Cooper, ASAP.  I called the next morning as soon as they opened and he agreed to see me later that day.  After taking X-rays, he determined that my pelvis was off alignment and with all the running, has caused major muscle imbalances in my lower back and minor imbalances in my upper back.  Apparently, when your pelvis rotates, it makes one leg shorter than the other and curves your spine to one side.  When that happens, your upper spine will compensate in order to keep your head directly above your pelvis.  What that meant to me was I was in a lot of pain.  Well, I am one week into treatments and I am almost completely pain free.  I was able to run 6 miles on Saturday and 3 miles yesterday.  Saturday’s run was a little painful, but yesterday’s was almost normal.  I am going back to Dr. Cooper today and tomorrow and, fingers crossed, I will be able to finish my first marathon in a respectable time.

If there weren’t enough challenges in training for and actually running for 26.2 miles, the weather forecast for Charlotte on Saturday is “A chance of rain or freezing rain before 1pm, then rain likely.  Cloudy, with a high near 40.  Chance of precipitation is 60%.”  I can’t think of worse weather to run in except for maybe sunny, humid and 100 degrees!  Oh well, it will make for a good story right?  And perhaps it will be good training for Mitchell Winter…

Update as of 2:48PM 12/9/09:

Saturday: A chance of snow and freezing rain before 11am, then a chance of rain and snow between 11am and 1pm, then rain and sleet likely after 1pm. Cloudy, with a high near 40. Chance of precipitation is 60%.

Update as of 8:35 AM 12/10/09:

Saturday: A slight chance of rain after 1pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 44. Calm wind becoming east around 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

Apparently, they can’t make up their mind, but this sounds better!  Even though it will be in the mid 20s at the start, at least it will be dry!