Race Weekend....and blogger fail

I'm a little behind in some race reports.  Let's see, I have to write about the NYC Half Marathon, the Around the Bay 30K race, the JDRF 5K from last weekend, and now I have my marathon on Sunday.  I've actually started them, but they are sitting in my draft folders.  Never mind, they will get done, but I can't promise they will be in consecutive order.

This weekend (tomorrow, in fact) is the big one.  I am running the Toronto GoodLife Marathon.  I haven't raced a marathon in five years.  I haven't made a secret about my goal.  I want to qualify for Boston here.  I was on vacation when the bombings occurred and it rocked me to my soul.  There have been some wonderful tributes and poignant stories that I've read since then.  No one knew what to say, yet everyone said the right things.  We are all a part of this community, whether we've been to Boston or not.  We all know the dedication and effort that goes into getting there.  For many people out there, this tragic and senseless event has fueled their resolve to qualify for next year.  I am no different.  I want to qualify.  I want to be in Boston in 2014.

I have many friends IRL and virtual who are running tomorrow.  Many are on Daily Mile and I've seen their progress over this challenging winter.  Many have set goals that I know will be easily achieved.  In fact, I believe they will surpass them.  I wish that for every single one of them.  They all deserve to be rewarded for their hard work and I look forward to reading about their accomplishments in the week(s) to come.

Thursday morning I received an email with my bib number.  It was 964.  It actually gave me a chill when I opened it because I was born September of  '64.  Is it a good omen?  I don't know.  All I know is that I know I've done the training and I'm as ready as I'll ever be.  I have many mantras that I will use on Sunday to get me through, but one for sure is going to be, "I can and I will."

I just wish this was (sort of) true:

To everyone racing this weekend:  Go get 'em!  You can and you will!