Whoomp. There it is.

As I struggled to stay asleep this morning [it just wasn't happening], I had the cuh-razy idea that maybe I'd lost a pound or two this week, and I could call today's post "Whoosh. There it goes."

But, nooooooooooooooo.

If you read M@rla's blog yesterday, you'll note that in the comments some smartass named Debbi said she was two pounds heavier after a very long running session on Sunday, and was then three pounds lighter yesterday morning. She is I am monitoring and recording my progress for informational purposes only. Today's report: Plus two from last week.

As I said in M@rla's comments: "Screw the scales!"

In a comment here yesterday, WS recommended MapMyRun [thanks, WS!] as a way to plan distance runs in advance or figure out how long they were after the fact. Once you've input the data – which, as you might expect, takes a long time on dial-up, but it can be done – you can click on the "Elevation" button and get a graph of the terrain. My Sunday run took me from 2,005 feet at my driveway to more than 2,500 feet near the church camp. [That's more than 40 flights of stairs.] I don't know about you, but I'm impressed. Heh.

The Country Music Half-Marathon website includes an elevation chart, and here it is for your utter boredom!
I don't anticipate any trouble with the hills on that course. It's too bad they can't reverse the route, because there is a slight hill as you approach the finish line. But the general trend is downhill, so that's good. I keep reading about this thing called momentum that carries you through. I just hope it decides to show up at the right time.

This part of the Middle of Nowhere is blessed with a couple nice rivers. Roads that follow rivers are generally not very hilly, including the two where I've been doing most of my training. But neither of those roads is long enough for an 11-mile run, unless I go back and forth multiple times. I just want a nice long straight run, or at least a nice long out-and-back loop.

As I drove along the river last night on my way to the prison I set the odometer to measure the distance from a tiny little bump in the road called Talcott to the edge of Alderson: 11.25 miles. Perfect! Except that it's a fairly well-traveled road with a very narrow berm, so not a particularly safe route. The nice thing about rivers, though, is they have roads on both sides. I'm going to either drive out again today or use MapMyRun to find a good route on the other side.

Today's mission: Four miles. I took a rest day yesterday, so I'm off schedule, but I can make it up Friday. That means running five consecutive days, but a four-mile run seems like a walk in the park now.

Cuh-razy.

Eighteen days until race day.