The French have a saying, "Jamais deux sans trois", it tends which has a negative connotation to it, and could be loosely translated to "bad luck (stuff) comes in threes", if I were to look at things from a negative perspective, this could be applied to my marathon history. In my first marathon I suffered some nutritional issues at around 30K and finished well over my goal time of 4:30:00. In my second marathon, I had some IT band issues and although I bettered my first marathon result, I was still well over my goal time. I've worked out my nutrition plan over the last year and a half, and with the help of solefit orthotics and my RMT, I've sorted out the IT band issues. So this being the third marathon, a negative person might dwell on what new obstacle would prevent me from achieving my goal.
However, there's a more positive way of looking at this for me "Third time's a charm". With the lessons learned from my first two marathons, the proper shoe, a tested nutrition plan and a number of other races under my belt, I am hopeful that this will be the race where I finally break that 4:30:00 goal.
I don't know if the taper for this race is any indication, but it has been very different from any taper I've been through so far. I have not experienced the nervous anxiety I normally do as the length and intensity of the workouts decrease. I have not had the hypochondriac thoughts that every twinge, cough, or slight ache might be the one that takes me out of this race or running altogether...and my pace has been getting faster rather than slower during this taper in spite of the fact that I've been running based on PE and not watching the Garmin (with the exception of this weekend's long run where I thought it best to closely monitor my pace).
I've decided to focus on the positive, to trust the training plan that has got me here injury free and the nutrition plan that has worked in both the half and 30K distances...I've decided that everything that my coach, my training partners and I have done in the off season and throughout this racing season, have prepared me to run the best race that I can next Sunday and that's the goal that I'm going to focus on when the gun goes off.
Now to turn that French saying around...I've had two Personal Bests this year...so the way I choose to look at it is that the Marine Corps Marathon could very well be my third PB this year, "Jamais deux sans trois" INDEED!!
