Hello from Providence, Rhode Island! I’m here to run the CVS/Caremark 5K Road Championships, scheduled for Sunday at 11:15 am EST. It’s my first US championship race and I couldn’t be more excited to represent my team (New Balance Silicon Valley!) and race with the best in the country.

After a long day of travel yesterday (SFO --> Chicago --> Providence), I’m all settled in at the race hotel and going through the motions of a pre-meet day: coffee (can’t start the day without it!), stretching, pre-meet run and strides, course preview, a trip to Whole Foods, massage, nap, relaxing and movie-watching. It’s a little weird to be traveling without any teammates or coaches, but the elite athlete coordinator has taken good care of all us athletes and we’re in good hands.

When the gun goes off tomorrow morning, I have two goals: to run smart and run tough. I’ve put in a big summer of training and tomorrow I get to show off the past 3 months of work. Yes, a race of this caliber is a little scary, but more than anything it’s exciting. I’m ready to go! :-)

If you want to watch the race streaming live, you can view it here: http://www.runnerspace.com/

I’ll be in a purple NBSV singlet, bib number 24. Thanks for all your support – now time to go chase some dreams!

Happy running!