Just for you, XLMIC.

Once again, time has completely slipped away from me, and there are a few things I should probably brush up on.

Next Wednesday, I'm heading up to the gorgeous Pacific Northwest to run the Boston Marathon of Relays, Hood to Coast. If it's not overly apparently by now, I'm running with a really kick-ass group of women. I feel like our team has been promoted endlessly on Twitter, Facebook, Nuun's blog, the blog world, gossip magazines, the national news (okay, no.), pretty much everywhere, so I assume everyone knows about this. But perhaps you don't.

Well, I'm running Hood to Coast with a bunch of blogging celebs, all under the name of Nuun. And here are the profiles of the three legs I'll be running next week.

Leg 2: 5.67 miles with a difficulty rating of Hard.

The HTC time predictor tells me I'll be running my first left at a 7:04 min/mile pace, which is HILARIOUS, because even though it's downhill, I'll never run that fast and expect to make it through the remaining legs. Not even downhill. And certainly not for 5.67 miles.

Leg 14: 6.08 miles with a difficulty rating of Moderate.

My second leg will be conveniently run at night. Conveniently? Yes. So when I piss my pants because I think I'm being chased by a wild animal, the people in my van won't see it, but instead they'll smell it & I can claim it was a sleeping team member. The HTC time predictor has guestimated I'll be running this leg at an 8:20 min/mile pace which is definitely doable, especially if I'm being chased by bears. Maybe this leg will help me make up for all the time I know I won't hit on my first leg.

Leg 26: 5.77 miles with a difficulty rating of Hard.

My third leg will be run the following morning -- so, yes, three runs in about 20 hours for this marathon burn-out -- and they have me predicted to run a 8:27 min/mile pace. Again, completely possible, but I think they forgot to factor in the whole "OH YEAH, I PROBABLY WILL BE EXHAUSTED BECAUSE I DIDN'T SLEEP" thing.

FUN!

Up until recently, running up hills in preparation for the San Francisco Marathon was the focus of my training and my time. Now that it's over and I'm still not recovered and feel completely fatigued (and I realized I haven't practiced any massive downhills), I've had a hard time getting pumped about Hood to Coast. Well, wait. That came out wrong.

I know this is an amazing opportunity and I canNOT wait to do it, but my legs and my lungs have not been in my workouts lately. I've been a bit worried about being "the one" that brings the team down.

AND THEN.

Earlier this week, Capt. Underpants (aka Margot) of my van let me know she was going to be in San Francisco for a work conference. I immediately demanded we get together for some non-running adventures, and we invited the one and only Commando (aka XLMIC) to dine (and drive us around), too.

Of course I brought them to Genki. Come on, would I take anyone anywhere else?

Let's just say I'm 100% certifiably excited for Hood to Coast after putting personalities to the names of some teammates! These two ladies were so infectiously hilarious, totally charming and inspiring, and I just know we are going to have grand adventures ahead. XLMIC really drove some awesome points home for me: This isn't about speed, this isn't about pace, this isn't about us winning a division medal. (Damn it.)

This is about having fun.

This is about promoting Nuun.

This is about being on the team that everyone wants to be a part of (or do they...?).

I'm just going to have to kill XLMIC when she takes videos of me being a super cranky pants because I arrive back at the van half-eaten by a moose.

(Just remember, XLMIC, you're running the very last leg & I will have breadcrumbs.)