Coundown: 14 days to marathon!

Lots of things have happened since we talked last.

1. Roommate and I went for a wicked-long run that resulted in much abdominal fury and a trip to the doctor's office. Doctor WebMD'ed my ailment and told me everything I had found on the internet myself. Swell.

2. Thanks to a strict diet of candy and fast food, I've lost a couple of pounds. I apparently can only lose weight by not thinking about it at all -- the minute I make a concerted effort, I fail miserably at the hands my obsessive tendencies.

3. I got faster.

Once last year I averaged an 8:49 mile in a half marathon. That was mind-blowingly fast compared to my usual pace. But training for this marathon, I've finished most runs feeling like I could have pushed the pace either a little or a lot (and like widening my stride might help improve my efficiency).

So finally, I did. It started with Luke mapping out a run of we did together and discovering we had totally rocked it.

You don't come this far in the distance running world without also becoming masochistically competitive against yourself, so I resolved to keep up with Luke on our runs and instructed him not to slow down for me.

Luke is fast. And he runs faster uphill, the bastard.

Although I have generally done well at this, last Wednesday I was dragging. I couldn't keep pace with the man to save my life and felt like garbage on wheels.

Per our routine, Luke mapped our run afterward and emailed me the breakdown. We had run an 8:09 mile for 8 miles -- no wonder I felt like hell! We'd previously been stoked to break nine.

Again, a distance runner can't just give herself a pat on the back leave it at that. Our reflex was to set a new goal: sub-eight miles on our next run. I again struggled to keep up with Speedy Gonzales on Thursday, but we ran 6.75 miles at about 7:40 per mile. Yee-haw!

4. Roommate's brother found us a sponsor for the marathon (which, by the way, is in two weeks): The Boys and Girls Club in Missoula.

It works like this: roomie-bro is raising funds on our behalf, getting race shirts printed with the club logo, and whatever remains after covering our race costs will benefit the club.

He is a policeman in Missoula and apparently loves doing this sort of thing, so he's going to town with getting people to donate money and all that. I like this arrangement because I don't have to do anything but will look super badass in my B&GC race shirt.

5. Roommate and I volunteered for IronMan and I am in love. We were there in the evening, so the badasses to whom we were handing out snacks & water had been out there for over 11 hours by the time we got there, 17 hours by the time the last guy reached the finish line.

6. I have become that person who can't talk about anything but running.

Unlike things I am characteristically passionate about -- social issues, politics, journalism, etc. -- running is pure soul food for me. Nothing about it is for anyone else, which is purely glorious in a life of obsessive people-pleasing and fretting about issues I can only make a tiny dent in improving.

If you're one of the numerous victims of my endless "Omg have I told you I'm super fast? Do you want to feel my super buff thighs?" monologue, know that it'll probably simmer down once I get over the ridiculous fabulousness of doing something healthy for myself. In the meantime, I suggest you feel my super buff thighs, because they really are quite impressive.