Posted on December 31, 2009 - by Ashley Jackson

Not with a bang…

Nope, I’m going to end 2009 by going to bed just as soon as I finish this post and take a shower. I’m tired and I want to make sure I get enough rest before the race tomorrow!

For breakfast, I had a Liberte yogurt, but I decided to spare you the photo.

Then a co-worker, who is also going to running in the 5K tomorrow, came in and informed me that she’d brought in a pecan pie.

I don’t even really like pecan pie, but I decided to give it a try because it looked good. It was from Whole Foods and was made with cage-free eggs, hormone-free dairy products, etc. Best pecan pie I’ve ever eaten.

I held off on anymore food until lunch, when I reheated leftovers from dinner last night.

I think my camera didn’t appreciate the contrast between the lime green of my notebook and the electric blue of my bowl. It tinged my pictures red! I’m not a fan of leftovers, but this wasn’t too bad reheated.

I used my two-hour reprieve from work to go to Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods, both of which were packed. By the time I got home I was starving and immediately threw dinner in the oven. While it cooked, I munched on some peanut butter and chocolate cereal.

At Whole Foods, I selected a grass-fed local flat iron steak to go with my last meal of 2009. I made Swiss steak (the way my family does it) with my last three potatoes, onions, garlic, and tomato paste.

Yes, my children, this is the potato swansong. No more potatoes for me until April Fool’s Day. They were delicious, as potatoes always are. (Unless they’re mashed. That’s just gross.)

Before I ate the cereal, I prepped some coleslaw, using the cabbage I forgot I bought at the farmers market yesterday, some coleslaw dressing I bought at Whole Foods, and blue cheese.

Good stuff, that blue cheese coleslaw.

After dinner, I used my pre-race anxiety to clean my kitchen and my bathroom and to straighten up my living room and dining room. I folded laundry. And then I thought, “Hey, why don’t I mess up the kitchen again?”

So I made a slightly modified version of the vegan chocolate peanut butter cups that were on Oh She Glows yesterday.

Okay, I didn’t make that big of a mess. My recipe modifications mostly included replacing vegan ingredients with non-vegan ones, and putting the pan in my fridge because I couldn’t make a flat space in my freezer to fit this pan if my life depended on it. Will let you know how they turn out tomorrow…

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I’ll make a more New Year’s Resolution-y post this weekend, but right now my goals involve my 5K tomorrow. I’ve gotten lots of great advice from co-workers who run, and I feel as prepared as I can be at this point. My goals for tomorrow’s race are to finish, preferably without walking, and to have fun and enjoy the feeling of being able to run however far I’m able. A year ago I couldn’t run for 30 seconds! I’m a little worried that I’m going to finish last, but I know that no one who matters will make fun of me if I do. Coming in last place in a race still puts me ahead of all the people who never started.

Some things that I’m going to try to remember to do tomorrow to help me make it through the 5K:

• Park in far parking deck so that I can walk to the race site and get a little warm-up in.
• Take a little jog before the race and stretch afterward, so that my calves don’t start hurting 5 minutes in.
• Start at the back of the pack, and don’t let the excitement and the faster racers pull me into starting off too fast.
• Focus on taking deep, slow breaths.
• Think positive thoughts or inspiring quotes, think song lyrics, think the pledge of allegiance, think anything to drown out the little voice that will at some point say, “Who the hell do you think you are, out here doing this? Your legs hurt. You should walk. You can’t do this; why did you ever think you could?“
• Remind myself that this is one race and it will be over with in less than an hour, and that I can push through any mental blocks or tired legs or that feeling that I’m out of breath when I’m really not for an hour.
• And lastly, since I know this course, when I see a certain landmark that lets me know I’m close to the finish line, I’m gonna throw it into high gear and run. =P

I’m going to close this post with one of my favorite inspirational quotes–a bit melodramatic for the situation, sure, but you do what you gotta. Have a safe and happy New Year’s Eve and I’ll see you in 2010!

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

–Teddy Roosevelt