Last note: Chicago Marathon is Sunday

It's Friday morning, my is bag (pretty much) packed, I've got my confirmation ticket that guarantees me a bib, and my zenned out "whatever happens is fine" state of mind is holding up quite well.

My bib # is 16766

If you think you'd like to have many hours of your Sunday punctuated with reminders of my agony, you can follow my progress through a runner tracking system with online updates or text messages, your choice. Click here to sign up for that (I'm registered as Patricia Daniels.)

I'm going to Chicago with 4 other women, among them some phenomenally fast and dedicated runners. I'm taking the approach pointed out by Ally Gould: you paid for this weekend, you want to stay out there as long as possible to get your money's worth.

A few details:

• The marathon begins around 8 a.m. on Sunday
• I have calculated that if I walk all 26.2 miles at a 15-minute pace then I will finish in 6 1/2 hours, which is when they officially close the race course.
  
• If I run 13 miles at a 12-minute pace and walk the other half at 15-minute pace I'll finish in about 6 hours.
• If at any point my lungs revolt and decide they are not, NOT putting up with this any more, then I'm willing to drop out. But I'd really rather not and I think I can avoid that.

A few more facts:

The shoes I'm racing in have logged less than 10 miles. This is unorthodox, but my only other option is the shoes that have logged too many miles and feel dead. Had I done any running in the last three weeks, these shoes would have been perfectly broken in. However if you read my earlier post about Saucony, you'll agree that I have no reason to worry.

I've decided to pack only a carry-on for the plane. The choice was to check a bag and carry-on everything I need for race day (so as not to lose said shoes and everything else), or just just to carry-on everything. When I realized that in fact I can stuff all my Gu, Himaya sunscreen, toothpaste, etc into a one-quart bag, and that all these items are in packages under 3 ounces, I decided not to flirt with the risk of O'Hare baggage handlers keeping straight the luggage of 40,000 arriving runners.

Yes, 40,000 runners are in the Chicago Marathan. For comparison's sake, this is the population of the entire City of Burlington, Vt. This is 20 times the population of the town of Grand Isle, Vt. And as of 9 a.m. on Friday, this is more than four times the value of the Dow. (Give it a 1/2 hour, I think it might be five times the value of the Dow.)

Thanks for the good wishes. Talk to you next week!

www.ChicagoMarathan.com