Wahoo! It's race week again, and I am very excited.

On Sunday I'm running the Route 66 Half Marathon for the third time, with this girl…

It also happens to be her birthday tomorrow, we did a little celebrating on Saturday night, but that's for another post.

On Friday we are loading up the family, dropping the dogs off at the kennel (Seriously, I called to get them a spot this morning and they got the LAST spot. Gotta work on the procrastination), and heading up to the hang out with the in-laws and run a little race called the Route 66 Marathon. I am running the half, but our speedy running friend Laura is running the full. How awesome is it to have all your slacker friends run half the distance you are running and then hanging out to wait for you finish your race? Well I've been a part of the slacker crowd before and it's awesome! It's even more fun when you know the person that wins the marathon and comes in about 30 minutes after you finish your race. (I can't wait to go back to Cowtown in February.)

Just so I don't upset anyone, I don't think that only slackers run half marathons. I have only run one marathon, and I LOVE the half marathon distance. I'm a fan of any distance that I can run basically untrained. (See last year's recap.) This will be my sixth half marathon, and my third trip to the starting line in Tulsa. I have a love hate relationship with Tulsa. I love that it was my first half marathon two years ago; I hate the six miles of hills at the start of the race. I love that it has been a really well run race the last two years, I hated the crappy weather we had to endure last year.

So we are heading up to T-town and have plans to celebrate some birthdays, Jose and Gordon's, and partaking in some Thanksgiving lasagna.

I love race week! I love checking and stressing about the weather. Really you cannot check the weather six days out and get an accurate picture of what the weather will be like. Unless you are lucky to live somewhere where the weather is always in the 70s and it never rains or snows. If that place is right by the beach I am totally moving there.

I love trying to decide what I'm going to wear. Because really, that is one of the most important parts of race prep; forget the hill repeats and speed work, it's all about the outfit and the pictures.

I am happy to report that I have made up with my IT band and we appear to be on a much better path than we were previously. I saw my chiropractor last Wednesday and got adjusted and they used the taped up my knee. I wonder if I could just put the tape all over my body because it has made my leg feel much happier.

Ro and I ran a naked 4.4 miles last Thursday morning, first run in a LLLOOONNNGGG time where I didn't have my Garmin and no one else had one either. On Friday we got up as the freaking crack of dawn to get our long run in with Patti before she headed out of town. I don't care what anyone says, meeting at 5 am is A LOT harder than meeting at 5:15. There is just something about leaving the house when the clock says 4:50 am that seems much harder. We ran just over 11 miles and while my leg had a few twinges during the run, while I was moving I was fine.

I am heading back to the chiropractor this evening and I'm planning to go back on Friday morning to get taped up just to make sure I'm good to go come Sunday.

Looks like I might be running Sunday with my sister Karen. It's her first half marathon and I am excited at the prospect of supporting her for her first half.