'Irony' Before the Marathon

Irony, that is what the 10 days before a marathon is filled with.  The irony that one moment you are on cloud nine confident you have maxed out your potential for this training segment, made great choices and are ready to take on the world (or United States in the case of the Olympic Trials), but 30 seconds later something hurts, you have doubt.  Will I make it to the start line?  Can I stay injury free?  What could I have done better?  Did I miss something in my training?  It will not be partly cloudy, or partly sunny, or drizzling over the next 10 days, it is either pouring or clear blue skies, doubt or confidence.












One extreme or the other, but most likely nothing between black and white, not a single shade of gray.  As I write this, yesterday was one of those crystal clear white days, but today is black and pouring, so I calmly (or maybe the text message that said HELP!, wasn't that calm) text Mat with hopes that he will have some magical cure for this hamstring/groin/abductor thing that doesn't feel so hot right now.  Two weeks ago I probably wouldn't have noticed this so much, but 10 days before the marathon I notice every possible thing.  What did I do wrong between last night and this morning that turned my banana from the perfect shade of yellow to the dark brown over ripe mess it is now, I have no idea, but I have hope that after a 4:30 appointment I will be back skipping in the clouds, conquering the world without fear.  No running today, just laundry, reading, blogging, cleaning, netflix and hope!  I will use my knowledge to push these dark clouds out of the way and take out my blue crayon and start coloring!