Welcome to another edition of Marathon Musings! (aka where I dump all of my miscellaneous thoughts about my first marathon, only 5 1/2 days away!)
First of all, thanks to everyone who entered the “Guess my marathon time” contest! (If you haven’t guessed yet, there’s still time! Deadline to enter is 6:59 a.m. Sunday morning.) I mentioned to the Gypsy Runner that a lot of people have guessed faster times than I would’ve. He gave me a funny look (eyebrows arched), and said, “Maybe that means something.” He’s right. I often have less confidence in myself (especially in my running ability) than others have in me. I’ll say things like, “There’s no way I’ll run that fast” or “That person is way faster than me.” I’ll just have to do my best Stuart Smalley leading up to Sunday. “I’m good enough, I’m fast enough, and gosh darn it, I’m going to kill this marathon!”
This will be me all week… except less creepy, hopefully.
OK, now for the main point of this post: the weather. I have an Accuweather app on my iPhone. It’s very informative with hourly forecasts, “Real Feel” temps, and radar maps. However, its powers can also be used for evil… being that it gives forecasts up to 2 weeks in advance. So, starting on Tuesday the 20th, I couldn’t help but start stalking the weather. I know, I know — 2 weeks is way too far in advance to trust ANY forecast. Heck, even one week is too long sometimes, especially during stormy Northern California late falls/winters. Despite these logical arguments, I began every morning by checking the weather in Sacramento. Here are 2 related tweets:
This kind of back and forth nonsense continued through the week and into the weekend, where the forecast would call for cloudy or partly sunny skies one day, then almost an inch of rain and thunderstorms the next. By Friday, I resolved to stop getting worked up about the weather. I knew it was too soon to tell, and even if it rains — so what? I’ll deal with it.
Fortunately, the recent forecasts from the past few days suggest that it will be cloudy with a chance of rain. More importantly, they’re calling for low winds from the south and a high of 61 F — so even if it does rain, it won’t be freezing cold.
Now, the bigger question is: what to wear? I will most definitely wear shorts, since my legs usually have no trouble keeping warm. As for the top, I think I will wear my Lululemon racerback tank, with some homemade arm warmers to start. I might also wear gloves, as I had a lot of trouble keeping my hands warm during the LMJS 10K yesterday (temp: low 50’s and heavily overcast). I already have sweats that I was going to donate to Goodwill anyway, so I’ll be wearing those on race morning. If it’s going to rain steadily/heavily, I might get a poncho. Does anyone have tips for what to wear in this kind of weather?
Hopefully this will not be me on Sunday. (source)
p.s. For your general information, here’s a page showing what the weather was like for the last 29 CIMs.
Howdy! My name is Jen and I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. I like to eat, run, and blog, but not usually at the same time.
Running Tangents 
I think your time will be 4hr.45min – b/c to me, that is already very awesome!
Thanks JS. 🙂
When it’s rainy, I find I want to wear fewer clothes and lighter weight ones – embrace the rain rather than fight it. It’s not like I’m really going to be able to stay dry, and having heavy wet clothes sticking to my skin the whole run is demoralizing.
Yeah, agreed. Plus it’s not going to be that cold. Any extra clothing I wear will be throw-away (sweats, poncho, and gloves).
HAHA…we are cut from the same clothe…I about spit out my water when you linked the historical weather data for the last…um 29 (!!!!!) CIM’s…brilliant. I hope it doesnt rain but if it does then I hope its light and you are prepared. I have no idea what it is like to run in the rain, I live in Southern California, I own one running jacket and one long sleeve shirt. My favorite new purchase is the Lululemon arm warmers because they are clothe, have venting in the top part of the mid arm and in the elbow…so I wear these in lieu of a long sleeve or sweater…amazing. Plus, if I get hot, I take them off and stuff them into my waistline, so what if it looks like I am playing flag football. AAAAAANNNND I still think you are going to hit closer to 4:15 than 4:45 but that’s juuuust me.
You are hilarious. And crazy for thinking 4:15. Anyway, I was wondering why you were suddenly a Lululemon fan! Maybe I’ll ask for a pair of those arm warmers for Christmas. As for running in the rain, I’ve only done short runs in drizzle, so I have NO idea what running in steady rain for 4+ hours is going to be like. Just picked up disposable ponchos from the dollar store today, so I think I’m all set??
I am not crazy, you are…4:15 can be done!
I know you are, but what am I??
When the forecast says something I don’t like, I totally dismiss it — ie, “Weathermen are never right,” “It’s still too far away to be accurate,” etc. Then when it’s looking good, I cling to it desperately. I’ve still never run a race, even a short in, in *actual* rain, so if it really does pour, I have no idea what I’m going to wear!
I’m totally doing the same thing re: weather forecasts! I’m pretty much checking different ones until I get one that I like. Today it’s back to rain again (BOO). I keep thinking about how worked up I got in March over the forecast for Oakland Half Marathon, and then it turned out to be perfect weather. SO… keeping my fingers crossed!
Just found your blog via my obsessive “CIM recap” googling. I’m wearing the same – shorts, a tank, and arm sleeves. As long as it’s not a hard rain, weather looks pretty ideal!
Good luck this weekend!
Ha, I thought I was the only one that did that (the recap googling).
Good luck to you too!
I am totally unable to grasp what day it is in the US so I may be a day early but GOOD LUCK! I am SO excited for you, you’re going to rock it!!!! And I’m so glad I don’t have to run it as well 🙂 Try to enjoy it, can’t wait to see your time and read your recap xxx
Thanks Cathryn! The race is less than 48 hours away! You picked a good time to leave the country — we’re getting pounded with rain. It actually hasn’t been nearly as bad as they’ve predicted, so hopefully Sunday will be okay. I’ll definitely keep everyone posted w/ my results as soon as I can! 😀