I'm dreaming of a Half-Marathon

Last night I dreamed about the half marathon. It wasn't exactly a bad dream, but it wasn't really a good dream either.

On the positive side, the running part of the dream went well. I didn't struggle, and I think I was running faster than I have any reason to expect.

However. A few other bad things, or at least not-so-good things, happened as well.

For one, I forgot to put the timing chip on my shoe. This is big. Everyone knows, no chip, no time. It doesn't matter how fast you run, without the chip to record it, you don't exist. And we all know how significant chip timing is in a big race (15,000 registered in Bath), where many minutes can expire before you even cross the starting line. And Bath is using a wave start system, which is a planned delay. I, as you can imagine, am not in an early wave.

Then, in the dream, I could not find the finish line. I think what I did (in the dream) was think I had finished, stopped somewhere, then realized it was not the proper finish area and had to search to find it. Something like this actually happened to me in a small way once. I was running in Olympia, where there is a group, or a guy, who puts on a marathon and a host of shorter races for every holiday. I was doing the "Halloween" 10K a couple years ago, just because I was on my way to Portland and thought it would be fun to stop for a run along the way. (Yeah, really.) These races take place in Millersvania State Park and while the start is on the main road through the park, the finish is off to the side in a covered shelter. I did not know this. When I got to where I had begun I was looking around for the finish line. I finally headed for the shelter and even then had to take another turn to find the clock. It was confusing.

Now in my Bath dream, despite all my problems I had a very good time at the finish, I think 1:43 (which is something I will never, ever achieve), and perhaps that is the reason it was a bad dream. I had the best time ever, but no chip to record it! Extreme irony.

So let's hope that in my dream I got all the bad stuff out of the way, and my feeling of easy running sticks with me tomorrow. The race doesn't start until 11 a.m (unheard of in the U.S.!), which means I can have breakfast at the hotel early (8:00) and still have plenty of time to walk down to the starting area and warm up as well. Or maybe warm up on the way to the starting area. It will all be fine. It will, it will.

You can read today's rather bitchy travel post here.