And now...the time is here....

The time I thought would come at last has come at last. One day left. Well, less than 24 hours, even. It has come too quickly and I am not prepared for it. As everyone knows, I’m speaking of Race Day! It is tomorrow, April 5th, 2008. The preparation has been going on for months-running, running and more running to get my body in shape and ready for the final event. Of course, now that it’s here, I don’t think I can do it! If you had asked me a week ago, I would be saying, “Shoot, I can do this, with my eyes closed” But now, I’m not so sure.
It all started about 2 weeks ago. My face and mouth had started to hurt. Thinking it to be nothing more than maybe I had knocked into it or something, no attention was paid to it. After a few days, it started to swell, around the nose/mouth area. I thought at the time it was odd, but I figured it a side effect, so again, no attention was paid to it. A few more days later, and it was huge. My face was very swollen underneath the nose, and it was difficult to smile or talk without invoking lots of pain. Now I knew something was far more wrong than earlier thought, but I figured (this was Friday by now) that I could wait until Monday to see the doctor, if it persisted. I woke up Saturday and my face felt ok. The swelling seemed to have gone down, and it didn’t hurt as badly, so I figured I was on the road to healing. I went on my morning run with no problems. As a side note, my run was from my house (In Spanish) to Joe Bandidos (In Springville) it is 6.5 miles-and I did it in 69 minutes, which I don’t think is too shabby, I was actually pretty proud of myself. Of course, after the run, I was like, I’m totally ready for next week! Oh, how wrong I could be, though.
Waking up Sunday, my face had swollen more and was now in more pain. By the afternoon, I could take no longer, so I headed over to the Insta-Care. The doctor there couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me, so he suggested I go to my dentist, to have him X-Ray my mouth, and sent me home with antibiotics and Loritab. (Thank you, kind doctor; those were very nice to have during these times of pain) My dentist isn’t opened on Mondays, so I was like, I’ll just go to work, not do a lot of talking and then go in on Tuesday. When I woke up on Monday, I looked so much worse. The swelling had gone up, even more, which I didn’t think possible, and it had spread to the right side of my face-I could see it from under my eye! I called the dentist, hoping he’d have an emergency number, but luckily, they were open! I was booked for that morning. After I was x-rayed, they found the problem-an infection in the gum area. The next day, we surgically drained and fixed that problem right up, so it’s ok now. Of course, I didn’t run Sunday, because of the mouth, nor Monday, and Tuesday was spent recovering. So here it is, Wednesday, before I even got a chance to run. Even though the mouth was a little painful, I decided to run. It was necessary!
The run was disastrous. I couldn’t do my normal speed, I had to go a little lower, and I couldn’t even do the normal time either! Once I hit the 5k, I walked five minutes, and called it quits. I was so disappointed in myself. I decided to run Thursday morning, before work, and that didn’t go that well either, I was slower than normal, and didn’t go for the full 5k, even. So now, I am doubting myself. Can I actually make the run? Will I have to turn it from a running 5k to a walking 5k? I’m not sure tomorrow is going to go as well as originally thought. I have been preparing, food-wise for it. I’ve had a protein day, I’ve had healthy days, and I did give up sugar for the week. Tonight I’m carb-loading, which I am looking forward to. Tons of pasta and bread-and maybe that will help me tomorrow. At this point, I’ll take any help I can get. But I will try my best. Maybe this time off with be good for me (as Ashley has been telling me this past week. I’m pretty sure she’s lying to me to make me feel better. Thanks, Ash) and I’ll run so good tomorrow.
No matter how I do, I know I’ll have PJ there to cheer me on and keep going, as she (most likely) runs past me. Wish me luck, ya’ll, and I’ll see you at the finish line!