Day 142: The game is on

Weatherwatch for TOMORROW (is this overkill? I have anxiety-typing issues):

Weather.com (which says that chance precip. is 10% throughout this time)

2 am: partly cloudy, 43° (wind chill 38°), wind N 8 mph, humidity 63%

3 am: mostly clear, 41° (wind chill 35°), wind N 9 mph, humidity 62%

4 am: mostly clear, 40° (wind chill 34°), wind N 9 mph, humidity 60%

5 am: mostly clear, 39° (wind chill 33°), wind N 9 mph, humidity 60%

6 am: sunny, 38° (wind chill 32°), wind N 8 mph, humidity 65%

[weather.com then shows sunrise at 7:28... before 7:00... and they list 6 am as 'sunny'!]

7 am: sunny, 38° (wind chill 32°), wind N 8 mph, humidity 65%

8 am: sunny, 40° (wind chill 34°), wind NNE 9 mph, humidity 60%

9 am: sunny, 43° (wind chill 38°), wind NNE 9 mph, humidity 51%

[I'm due to start at 10!]

10 am: sunny, 46° (wind chill 41°), wind NNE 10 mph, humidity 46%

11 am: sunny, 48° (wind chill 44°), wind NE 9 mph, humidity 42%

12 pm: sunny, 49° (wind chill 45°), wind NE 9 mph, humidity 41%

1 pm: sunny, 50° (wind chill 47°), wind NE 8 mph, humidity 39%

2 pm: sunny, 51° (wind chill 48°), wind ENE 7 mph, humidity 38%

3 pm: sunny, 51° (wind chill 48°), wind ENE 7 mph, humidity 38%

Weather.gov still has a high of 53; another source says "highs in the upper 40s; northwest winds around 10 mph becoming northeast in the afternoon."

Am I a little neurotic?

So, it'll be a little on the chilly side. And the wind will apparently be in my face for the first 20 miles of the race... it'll feel sweet to turn around and put it at my backside for the last few.

I have been a bundle of nerves today. Many people have called or e-mailed or texted their well-wishes, which has really helped to get me through the day. I haven't been sleeping well, my nose is now running (after months of being perfectly healthy -- of course it has to be this way!), and all the carb-consumption is rapidly reducing my interest in eating. I stayed indoors nearly the entire day, getting things put together for tomorrow. I even dug out an ancient humidifier from my brother's closet in an attempt to moisten, and somehow purify, the air in my bedroom. I cannot believe that mere hours separate me from the marathon.

I did get in my last training run this morning, 2.5 miles, bringing my training distance up to exactly 500 miles (since June 14, the day after the bike trip ended). A snarling little dog darted off a porch straight for my ankles, giving me a split second to think to myself "does a freak dog-bite injury end it all, with less than a day to go?" I didn't break stride and was preparing to squash the dog underfoot when it finally disengaged and ran back to its house. The owner and I made eye contact. "Sorry," he said, and he seemed somewhat as though he meant it.

Now my clothes are laid out for tomorrow. I have my race clothes, but then I also have my bonus clothes, which I'll wear most of tomorrow morning to keep me warm. I'm glad we're adjusting clocks tonight -- don't forget! -- because it gives me an extra hour of sleep. Here's the agenda:

2:00 -- Wake up. Tend to biological business, mostly, for awhile.

3:45 -- Depart house for train station.

4:05 -- Train to Manhattan. I may ride in the bathroom, just to make efficient use of the time.

4:50 -- Clamber out of Penn Station and walk to the Public Library.

5:30 (so I'm told) -- Board bus for Staten Island.

Hours -- Stand/sit/lie around outside in the cold darkness. This is where the bonus clothes come in handy.

8:30ish -- Turn in my plastic bag of belongings. I may still need some of the bonus clothes, which will then have to be discarded just prior to the start (although volunteers will evidently gather them up and donate them to charity).

Then -- Last bathroom break prior to race (though Carson advises bringing an empty bottle to the start, just in case).

10:00 -- I'm supposed to start, but there may be a delay in actually getting to the start line. They are using a wave start this year, which should smooth things out.

I expect to see a lot of people -- my parents, Carson, Theresa, Ben, Katie, Dana, Mindy, Aaron, Frank, and maybe others -- along the way, which I think will buoy me to no small extent. No one has ever watched me during a race before, so it'll be a new experience. I'm even leaving the iPod behind, to maximize sensory perception.

Other people run marathons. I have a production. Hey, it takes a village.

It's about 6:00 PM now, pre-clock-adjustment. I will chomp on some cookies, do a couple more marathon-prep things, and will hopefully be sleeping not long from now.

To everyone who has supported me -- including my new blog-commenter-acquaintances -- THANK YOU! I realize that for the past few months I have been unable to talk of much besides the marathon, and I appreciate your enduring the earnest transmission of what I can now see a bit more clearly as utterly irrelevant details about my running, equipment, physical condition, and mental state. (Oops.) Special thanks go to all the official members of Team Plosky, who contributed to my Central Park Conservancy fundraising, which made it possible for me to run the New York City Marathon in the first place. Particular thanks to Carson, my great friend and coach -- maybe I could have done this without you, but would I ever have? You have challenged me, believed in me, and made me realize I had capabilities I did not know. And, of course, thanks to my family: my parents, my brother, my soon-to-be-sister, and, especially my grandmother, who always believed in me and loved me without question... my greatest sadness about the marathon is that she's not here to see me run it (although she is, of course, with me).

[Bonus shout-out to Crystal for being, simply, awesome.]

I remember, about a year ago, talking with Carson and Theresa about the idea of entering the December 2007 Davis Square 5K. I had run just a little bit in the years previous -- two 5Ks, not long after graduating college, and a couple of abortive attempts in 2005. Carson even put me in the right shoes and got me a shirt and shorts back in '05, but running still didn't stick; I tried a few times while I was living in Washington during the spring of '05, and I remember doing at least a couple of runs during a trip to Atlanta that June, but shin splints bothered me, and anyway I really wasn't into it. Then, that day at the office, we were discussing the race, and whether Theresa and I could run it in less than 25 minutes. Sure, I thought, since I'd done one of my 5Ks in 23:54. But I wouldn't commit to the Davis 5K... I was worried about shin splints... I thought it would be annoying to train during the winter... and so on. We were headed to lunch, and were about to go down the stairs, and all of I sudden I yelled at them, "Wait here!" -- and I darted back to the office and signed up on the web site. (I just checked my e-mail archive and, in fact, this occurred exactly one year ago today -- Nov. 1, 2007.) They thought I was nuts, but I said, "Look, I was either going to do it RIGHT THEN... or never." As it happened, a blizzard forced the postponement of the race by a week, to just a couple of days before Christmas. Carson and Theresa were out of town, so I ran alone, but with all three bibs. I met my goal, finishing in 24:19... and the rest, as they say, is history. Three months later I took a minute off my 5K time, and then it was on to a 5-miler and a 7.5-miler. At some point I started thinking about a marathon, and then New York, seeing as how it was on my birthday, and at a convenient time for training, too. I lost the general-entry lottery... but by then I was determined, and I finagled my way onto the Central Park Conservancy's team, figuring that my friends would back me up with the necessary funds. I remember hanging up the phone and turning to Carson, as we were in his car heading east, returning from the bike trip, and saying, somewhat to my surprise as reality began to sink in, "I'm in."

So now, I'm a slightly better person (I hope!), regardless of how tomorrow turns out. And slightly older, too: tomorrow is my birthday. What better way to celebrate than by running my kishkes out for 26.2 miles through the city of my birth, surrounded by 40,000 of my partners-in-sweat and millions of admirers?

IT'S ON!