Nerves

It’s now less than two weeks from the the Flying Pig and I’m getting nervous. So many “what ifs” are crowding my brain. My number one fear is injury. I’ve been really careful the last few weeks and cut down on my running as soon as I feel the slightest irritation in my legs. I’m probably just overreacting, but 13.1 miles is a huge jump from 3.1 miles.  The bad part is that I’m starting to have weird dreams.

The dreams started a few days ago. I dreamt that one of my co-workers was my “running mentor”. He found me somehow walking around Ohio looking lost  and offered me a ride. From there, he told me advice about warming up and what to eat before the race, etc. We stopped for breakfast and he made me buy a huge stack of pancakes, eggs, and bacon (for protein buildup). From there, the dream went to the day of the race. Nina was there of course and so was Carla to cheer us on. I was dressed as a piglet. I had to wake up at this point. I was totally creeped out.

Last night I had a weird dream that I was coming home from work. It was night and I had recently meet someone by the name of Frank who had given me his number if I needed help. There were two trees on each side of the front door. They didn’t look like normal trees with a thick trunk. The trunk was like branches twisted together. If you ever seen The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, the White tree of Gondor is what the tree looked like only they were brown and not white.  As I started to open the door, I noticed the trees started to move. When I looked closer, there were snakes moving in the trees. There wasn’t just one or two; there were a lot of them. They didn’t look like they were going to attack me, but they just kept moving and starting at me. Their skin was brown with blacks stripes wrapping around their bodies. I  had a panic attack. I couldn’t scream or move. I could only look at the snakes move in the trees. Once I was able to move again, I walked back to my Jeep and called Frank to help me find a place to stay for the night. He was surprised that I called him so soon. Ok, this dream was creepy too.

I’ve noticed a trend that when I’m extremely stressed or nervous about something, I start to have weird dreams. I’ve prepared long and hard for this race so I guess the best advice to myself would be to continue what I’m doing and be optimistic. I don’t care about what time I finish. I just want to cross the finish line free of injury if possible.