It arrived in the mail yesterday – my entry confirmation and number pick-up info.  I’ll be wearing number 137 as I slog my way through Falmouth on October 29.

This makes it all a little too real, and I don’t know how I feel about it this morning. 

I have a countdown control on my computer desktop.  It lets me know how many days, hours, minutes and seconds I have until the marathon starts.  At this moment, the countdown tells me that in 17 days, 2 hours, 57minutes and …. 48 seconds, I’ll be lining up near the Village Green in Falmouth waiting to run 26.2 miles.  Based on that, I have a pretty good feeling that in 16 days 22 hours, 57 minutes and 48 seconds I’ll be back near the Village Green crossing the finish line.  (I think that’s 4 hours. Math was never my favorite)

I set up this countdown control a few months ago as some extra motivation during training.  Honestly, I never thought that I needed the motivation, but I found the control on google and was looking for an excuse to use it.  It was either the marathon or Christmas.  Since I’m not 8 years old anymore, I thought having a Christmas countdown on my computer would be a little dorky.

The point is, I know that it’s October.  I know that in a couple of weeks I’ll be running this marathon.  I know that it will be a physical struggle and I will have my share of mental challenges along the way.

I suppose I wish that I was wearing number 7, 432 instead of number 137 while I was doing it.  Number 137 is for fast people.  Guys who wear number 137 are 5′9″ and weigh 140lbs.  They’re not 6′2″ 190 (ish). 

My other concern about #137 – that’s not a whole lot of other runners on the course (I think it will be a couple thousand total – including relay teams).  I knew that this would be a smaller field of runners, and I knew that I might be better off making my first marathon one of the “big” ones, but I wanted to stay on the Cape where I could train and my friends and family could come watch. 

Still, the reality that I’ll be wearing 137 …. OK … enough typing.  I need to get out for a run.