Test results and time to taper (and pack)

It's almost here; exactly two short weeks from today, I will be getting on the plane to head to Berlin for marathon number seven! It's hard to believe it's finally here. And, it's even more hard to believe that I have been holding my breath for over two weeks waiting on my doctor to send me the results of my echo-cardiogram and the decision on whether I was going to be granted their approval to run the marathon or not. Finally that suspense came to an end yesterday, though not without having a moment of sheer panic at the sight of my doctor showing up on caller ID instead of e-mailed results. From my experience, phone calls about test results generally are not a good thing. Fortunate for me, this was an exception to the rule. 

They said everything looked okay on my results and they didn't see any reason for me to not run my race. Time to celebrate with a glass of wine (okay it was actually tart cherry juice; but at least it was in a wine glass).

This past weekend I did my final "long" run and I'm happy to say I successfully made it through training with no major injuries. It's so peaceful running on the trails. I don't even think about how many miles I'm running when I'm surrounded by these amazing sites.

My biggest problem now; finding my discontinued Under Armour shorts in a different color to wear during the race. It seems like every time I find a new style I love Under Armour discontinues them and doesn't have a replacement that is similar in the least.

So, now the most difficult part of training comes into play; the taper. Over the next two weeks the longest run I have is 8.5 miles. I'm definitely kicking my yoga up a notch during this time to keep me from getting bored (and cranky). Because I knew this time was coming and I'm trying to save money for the trip I invested in a 2 1/2 ft by 6 ft piece of 1/2 in thick particle board. This way I can lay it down on the carpet in my apartment and have a nice stable surface to do my yoga practice on. 

I've put together another 30-day yoga challenge for myself with a strong focus on hip openers as it's one of the biggest things I need to work on. Just for fun while I was playing around last night, I decided to try a new pose I had seen online. My form needs a lot of work, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be on my first attempt.

Who else is doing Berlin? And, more importantly, who can track me down some discontinued Under Armour shorts?!

#together42