If you're looking for inspiration, don't stop here

This quote keeps playing over in my mind, as swiped from RBR's blog:

"...In the end, people either have excuses or experiences; reasons or results; buts or brilliance. They either have what they wanted or they have a detailed list of all the rational reasons why not."~ Anonymous (taken from Matt Erbele's, It Takes Time to Get Good)

So right now, some 900 or so people are running the Half Madness half marathon in Batavia, IL in the far west suburbs of Chicago. I am not one of them. Why? Here's my "detailed list of all the raional reasons why not", a list that grew in my head throughout the day:

1. I'm not ready. I have hardly run this week and my longest run of 10 miles was 2 weeks ago.

2. Knee still not 100%. It's wayyyyy better, but not 100%.

3. Worried about pace. This is a small race and small races tend to attract faster runners wth very few "penguins". Course closes in 3 hours. (My pace is 2:37-ish, but that's assuming no walking breaks...and i have NOT been hitting that pace with my longer runs.

4. Unfamiliar course, and running "alone".

5. Ugh. Have to pack up my clothes, the girls clothes and drive 50 miles to stay overnight at my parents.

6. Running a much more comfortable race, one I've run, starting line 2 miles from home, running buddy Lou is running with me, running buddy Meg cheering us on and meeting us for breakfast afterwards, running with some 15,000 other people, no worries of the course shutting down before I finish.

So these are how the thoughts added up in my head yesterday in the late afternoon as I sat at yet another baby shower unscrambling baby words and chatting with good friends from my college years.

Instead I came home and obsessed about Hurricane Gustav, "Decision 2008" (switching between MSNBC, the Weather Channel and CNN, all of which were covering both.) And then I made some cookies to attempt some new designs. And no, I didn't eat any.

So anyway, if you're looking here for inspiration, don't stop here.