Hey, everyone, Emily Abadi here. You're listening to Five Minute Friday from Hurtle.

Oh my goodness. Yeah, I'm a ball of all of the things right now. I'm nervous. I'm excited. I feel

kind of. I mean, not kind of. I'm a little bit speechless, which isn't

helpful when you're a podcaster. I'm sitting in my hotel room. I'm in Tokyo and I'm recording

this in the future, which is wild, because by the time you listen to this, I will only be

about 24 hours out from running my 13th

marathon, the Tokyo Marathon, my sixth world marathon major. And that is absolutely bananas.

For five minute Friday today, it's the state of the state. It's how's my mental state? And

candidly, I feel both ready and also oddly unprepared for this. And the unprepared comes from

the emotional side of things. I feel as though I am not even understanding how much this is going to hit me on the day of the marathon,

that running my 13th marathon is going to feel even crazier than running my first marathon

back in Hartford almost over 10 years ago at this point. And it's a lot. But it's a good a lot. I have had a lot of time on my own this week as I've

been traveling from Singapore, which was absolutely stunning. I cannot recommend it enough to Tokyo.

And in that time, I've just been thinking so much about two topics, really.

One, the fact that this wasn't a goal for me when I started.

When I started running, I was using running as a weight loss tool and only as a weight loss

tool.

I didn't love it at first at all.

In fact, I did everything I could to just get through the run a half mile every day for an entire summer back into 2008.

And now I truly cannot imagine my life without it.

I spent time writing on all of the different things that running has helped me get through and overcome the hurdles that I have persevered through because I've

had this tool at my disposal, at least a part of the toolbox anyway, that has helped me navigate

...