Getting Nervous, Getting Anxious

About 4 days until I'm standing amongst thousands of people in downtown Portland waiting to run a hellish 26.2 miles. All for what?
Well... I'm having to go over that in my head this week.
I'm running for:

First and foremost the kids at St Andrews.
(The money raised through my fundraiser will go towards after school programs)
My family
All the people that put down their names with a little bit or a lot of money. I'm running for you.
My Stepdad Frank, who I know will be with me on the run.
and myself, I really want to prove to myself I can do this.
I've been training now for a little over 5 months, running 4 times a week, I'm ready for the culmination of my hard work.

Thank you again for your support.

Starting to taper off. YEAH!

I am finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I don't have any more long runs until the marathon in two weeks. (wow, I think that's the first time I've realized the race is so close)
Today was a beautiful morning...7 miles on the waterfront can never be bad.

For next week's run I'll be in Boise for a good girlfriend's wedding so I'll get to run on my old stompin grounds along the Boise River Greenbelt (5 miler) Should be relaxing and easy.

Study hall starts again this coming week at St. Andrews Nativity School. I'll be continuing working with the kids every Wed. on Math, English, and maybe a little Spanish.
Right now I am currently at 82% of my fundraising goal so If you're reading this and you feel like bugging your friends to donate I certainly would not object.
Again, thank you for all your support.

I have to say I'm proud of myself ....

They say if you can complete 21 miles, you can complete the marathon. My confidence is renewed! I have been having trouble this week with the short distance runs ( getting tired, losing motivation, etc) but I kept a very slow pace for this benchmark and I felt really good at the end. Well...I can't say I felt 'really' good, the ankles were in severe pain. But emotionally and mentally I felt fricking amazing! I even missed my turn! The route went down by the waterfront and it just so happened that there was a massive dragon boat race occurring. Amongst all the people I missed the volunteer giving directions to turn right and continued straight.....1/2 a mile later.... I'm looking around and don't recognize any of the runners. No Portland Fit Shoe tags or T-shirts.... I'm starting to wonder... I pull out the map that our leaders gave us at the begining and have to stop running to figure out where the heck I am. Sure enough... ran 1/2 a mile out of the way.... turn around to backtrack... 'Hey, what's another mile?!' F*$%!!!!
So you might think I'm a little cuckoo after reading this next story but...
In between mile 18 and mile 19 I was all by myself. The group had spaced out enough where there was a decent distance between the person in front of me and no one behind me. About this time, Frank ran with me. For those of you who don't know Frank, he is my deceased step dad. So... one might ask, "How in the heck is this possible?" ... Heck if I know. I do know the man running beside me was a younger version of my S. Dad with the same crazy personality. He was there with me for no longer than a couple minutes. It was such an intense feeling After his 'image' left my side I was grinning ear to ear with tears in my eyes. Even now as I'm describing it I feel emotional. The final 3 miles I had a new found energy and the pain seemed to be less. I know you're body and mind do crazy things went you push them to a physical limit. I'm hoping I'll see him again on the marathon.

Now time for the ice bath :)