The Feline in All of Us

You are a TIGER! You are the biggest of all cats and the strongest. You possess leadership qualities. Tigers are capable of swimming very well, unlike most other big cats. Most of the time you win your fights or arguments but because you are strong physically and mentally, it's difficult to point out your weaknesses and enemies. You are very responsible and keep up with your duties/chores and look after your friends and family.

Which FELINE are you?
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I would have to say this quiz was 97% on the money except I am obviously a White Tiger! Thanks to FelineVamp for the quiz.

Last night I found myself seriously doubting, well, myself. Specifically wondering what I am thinking in regards to the Columbus Marathon on Sunday. I mean who the heck am I to think that I am going to go and PR by 10-20 minutes. I mean really?

In all seriousness I know that my goals are reasonable and that my legs should be capable of finishing Columbus in less than 3 hours and 30 minutes. But Su's Chicago experience has left me feeling a bit worried. I mean she was just as prepared (if not more so) than I am now. Why didn't she reach her goal?

It just goes to show that on any given day I could make it or I couldn't.

So to prepare this head of mine the next few days I really need to focus on the positives.

When I was younger and running 5k's for high school cross country my mom would always tell me to use visualization. Specifically to imagine running beside a white tiger (you were wondering how the intro was going to fit in to the post right?) and to get power from that.

When I was 18 I went and got myself a white tiger tattoo on my back so that I no longer had to imagine it, I could actually have my white tiger right there with me running at all times and watching over me. I am sure that I do get power from my inner white tiger. I was made aware of the outer power I draw from it too in Boston. Somewhere around 13.1 miles (at this point I was already in a lot of pain and starting to run water stop to water stop, yikes) I heard a guy shout "hey we must be brother and sister" :) I looked at him to see he had a very nice white tiger tat on his leg. I found that the small bond we shared between our tattoos and our obvious love of the same animal gave me a little boost I wouldn't have had otherwise.

So the next few days I will be thinking about my inner tigress and drawing positive steam from her. Repeat after me "I am strong, I am tough, I will break 3:30!" And hopefully these little legs of mine will hold out for a great race!

I found I was also looking for some other outside inspiration and found some great new blogs about running etc. Links are added at the right check them out! There are some great recounts of races as well as good entries about everyday training!