Hail Mary:

“A forward pass in football, especially as a last ditch attempt at the end of a game, where completion is considered unlikely.”

I am not a football fan.  I leave the rabid cheering to MFH (My Favorite Husband), my Dad and my BIL.  Those three are F.A.N.S.  I do, however, know what a “Hail Mary” attempt is.  That last desperate attempt to score.  Anything at all that may turn the game towards your favor.

The Chicago Marathon is 20 days away.  Well, seeing as today is almost complete, we could probably get away with saying 19 days.  Whatever the count may be, I recognize that I am woefully un-prepared for this race.

Let’s face it.  I was actually sitting in a pretty nice spot the beginning of August just coming off of running that 50K.  Sure, I was was behind in regular marathon training but I had a solid foundation of miles under my belt and for a little bit, I could actually drop back on my total weekly mileage for a little bit.

I was able to get a bit of a breather what with vacation and all, then it was time to get down to brass tacks.

I started to increase up to my 20 mile training runs again.  I had mapped out three of them, figuring that my last 20 mile training run would, in reality, be a 23 miler.  Chicago was looking to be a nice, easy, run in the park.  It was going to be fun!  I was on track for a one hour PR.  Things were looking good.

You all know about the concussion so we won’t beat a dead horse, but it has made me miss out on pretty much my entire last month of training for this race.

This is not good.

What was going to be an easy race, has now turned into a major challenge.

Not only has my time suffered, my fitness level has suffered as well.   Last Wednesday was to have been my 23 miler.  I could only run 19.  Well, I suppose I COULD have continued but I would have had to take more than the two days off I did take to recover from that training run.

My noggin’ isn’t healing as fast as I would like.  It IS getting better!  Don’t get me wrong on that!   I was just hoping that it would be all better in time for the race.  That doesn’t look like it will be the case.

The 11 minute mile pace (I know, slow to most of you but fast for me) I was hoping to maintain for the race has now dropped to (and I am being realistic here) closer to a 13 minute mile.  My PR hopes have now been replaced with the goal of completing this race before they stop the clock.

I think this is a realistic goal!  I really, really do!

When I complete (please note optimism here) the Chicago Marathon before the clock stops, I will have beaten this concussion.  I will have shown it that it cannot keep me from my goals, my dreams and the things I love to do.

Yes, in 19/20 days, I will be attempting probably the biggest Hail Mary in my life.

This is exciting stuff!!!

Let’s do this!!!