Committed.

I have a confession to make.

If you're super-observant, you may have noticed that for sometime part of the sidebar over there looked like this:



If you'll glance over, you may notice a distinct change (aside from ticking off races).

So....yeah:



Holy balls, Batman.

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First, let's get a few things out of the way about the confirmation page:

• Are you really staying at home and driving an hour and a half to Sacramento on race morning?
  Hells no; I'm going the day before to stay in a hotel like a normal person. I wasn't really thinking all that clearly when I was registering, though, so the hotel question kind of caught me off guard. Since I hadn't even thought about where I'd be staying, I just put "home" because "I am kind of too freaked out by the idea that I'm actually doing this to think about things like hotels" was not an option. (I did briefly consider driving up race morning to save money, but between packet pickup, dealing with parking, and losing two hours of sleep, it seemed worth the cost of a cheap motel.)
  
• Are you really planning to cab / hitchhike / jog / Marty McFly it to the start?
  Again, no; I'm taking the bus like a normal person. (That whole "I am too freaked out by the fact that I'm actually doing this to think about things like how I'm getting to the start" thing again. I also often have a knee-jerk reaction to things that cost extra money. Thankfully I checked and you can buy a bus ticket at the expo if you didn't get one when you registered.)
  
• Are you really trying to qualify for Boston?
  Given that it's my first marathon, it's not my top priority, but based on my times at other distances, it seems reasonable likely enough that I could do it that I figured I wouldn't embarrass myself by checking yes. Mainly I am trying to run the fastest marathon I can, and if it happens, it happens. (Also, checking yes didn't cost extra money.) (That was a joke about my cheapness.)
  
• But I thought you were anti-marathon!
  I'm not anti-marathon but it's true that I did say for a long time that I would probably never run one. Why I decided to do it is a bigger question that I'll have to tackle in a separate post -- it's going to take me a little time to get my thoughts together and be articulate about this business.
  

Until then, who else is running CIM? Wanna carpool or meet up at the expo? :)