Fitting Remarks: Race Ready: Time for Some Self-Talk!

My sister is here, yay!

Our packets for the race have been picked up. We're ready for the Urban Wildland Half Marathon tomorrow!

I took the day off of work and started my day early with a quick barre class at The Barre. Then it was lots of errands, such as the grocery store to stock up on bananas and gatorade, and then off to packet picket!

Packet picket was held at the Richfield Ice Arena. Since I was there early in the morning, it was pretty dead. I was able to pick up packets for Dustin, my sister, and a few friends in less than five minutes.

After packet pickup, I took Matilda to the airport dog park for an hour or so to wear her out (one of her top places in her Guide to Minneapolis!)  Vizsla lovers, here is your daily dose of dog pictures!

Tilda got her exercise in, and then it was time to head to the airport to pick up Erin!

After I picked her up at the airport, we were both a little hungry for lunch. We grabbed Matilda and her leash, and then walked over to Turtle Bread Company for a quick snack. How quickly a few hours passed as we caught up on life...Before we knew it, Dustin was back from his work day.

We still had some time to kill before dinner, so we decided to check out the Sculpture Garden for some requisite Minneapolis pictures.

and another one...

For dinner, we enjoyed our carbs at Punch Pizza - best place to eat before a race! Now we're just relaxing before hitting the hay.... 

I put up a few motivational signs in the guest bedroom for Erin to keep her pumped up for tomorrow.

She was also greeted with a little basket to pump her up for the race. 

She said she's feeling a little nervous, but I have confidence in her. Her training for the Milwaukee marathon has been going really well. She's been doing speed training and hill work with her running club, as well as barre and yoga for her cross training. I think she's got this half marathon goal in the bag!

Such a large part of race preparation in the mental preparation. I shared a lot of mantras in THIS POST <-- (reading this tonight to pump us up!)  Our bodies are physically capable of so much more than we know, but we often fail to achieve our goals because we get scared. We doubt ourselves and let our minds defeat us. 

I definitely let my mind destroy me at the Flying Pig marathon this year. On the other hand, I had a really good experience at the Ron Dawes 25k earlier in the spring by really working to keep my negative thoughts at bay. At that race, I really focused on not getting down on myself. If a negative thought came into my head, I pushed it out and just kept telling myself "you're so strong, you're so strong." Seems silly, but honestly it worked for me to focus on positive thoughts. 

Of course, you need to have done the physical training too, but its just as important to prepare your mind with positive self-talk.

It's all about confidence. You need to TRUST YOUR TRAINING. 

So, to my sister Erin- YOU GOT THIS!