Mostly clear. Highs 65 to 75. Lows in the 40s.

Yeah, baby. I am beginning to weather-stalk, and building mojo for next Sunday. Never mind that it's almost always nice in Moab. But first...tales of things not going smoothly in the week leading up to the big race.

First, let's start with my totally awesome wardrobe malfunctions this weekend. No, no Janet Jackson action. I literally could not find the clothes I wanted to run in Saturday....or my gels, or my new Clif Shot Roks that I knew I'd spotted somewhere in the house over the past week-but could not locate for the life of me. It was one of those cram-packed days when I couldn't wait to start, though, so I just sucked it up and headed out. Instead of going out appropriately dressed for a 6:30 a.m. start, I was freezing my butt off for about the first five miles with no gloves and a handheld water bottle doing the equivalent of brain freeze to my hand and arm. My knees were cold in my shorts-thank goodness for my Magic Rollergirl Socks to keep the calves warm!

The run itself wasn't all that terrible, though. I logged a bit over fourteen miles for my last long-ish run before The Other Half. It was a very important workout on my unofficial, make-it-up-as-you-go, schedule designed to work for Imogene, then a half, and finally a full. I can't begin to state how awkward I've felt stumbling my way through whatever seems like a good run that day, and hoping it all comes together. Part of me feels like I wasted a whole training cycle screwing around and not being serious, but the other part of me says that I needed to do what I've been doing-logging miles, running on feel, and not overthinking stuff. The 5K a little over a week ago was a decent confidence booster, so I'm not ready to throw my new way of doing things entirely out the window.

In more taper madness news-my kids thought this would be the best week in the world to become succeptible to upper respiratory stuff. My son, not to be outdone and as a way to stand out from his sisters, thought he'd throw in a little nausea to boot. Yay me! Everyone seems to be on the mend now, but that's been an added degree of difficulty to have to be overcautious, sucking down Emergen-C on a regular basis, and repeating "I will not get sick-I will not get sick" over and over .

Much like that itchy feeling one gets when you find out that there was a head lice outbreak at the neighborhood school, I've found myself overanalyzing the teenieset stomach ache, or wondering if that little sniffle means I'll have full blown double pneumonia in a few days. Good times. I know it's all just taper time crazy-think, but I can't seem to turn off the race week hypochondria. Oh well-I'm going to have the cleanest hands in the world with the amount of hand washing going on as I try to resist any evil germs or bacteria that would do me in if I gave them the chance.