You know when you get to a certain point before a deadline, or before something is supposed to happen, and you realize you need to stop procrastinating and get prepared?

Yeah, I think I’m there.

So, Saturday marked 10 weeks to go before the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon. My wife and I ran the half-marathon portion of the IMM last year in our first real race … but we didn’t run the whole 13.1 miles. We hit mile 11 and my bad knee started acting up and my wife was fighting leg cramps, so we walked until almost the finish line, then sucked it up and ran the last couple hundred feet.

But we finished, and that was cool.

Being the glutton for punishment that I am, however, I decided that I wanted to run it again, and this time, I would run the whole thing. I convinced my wife to give it another shot as well.

Now, here we are, 10 weeks away — well, a little less now, as I’m writing this on Sunday afternoon — and quite frankly, I don’t know. I just don’t know.

It’s not as if we haven’t been running. But it’s one thing to run for 3 miles or even 3.5, and another thing entirely to run 13.1. That’s like, 10 more miles, in case you’re not so good at the math.

My plan for this weekend — 10 weeks before the race, remember — was to do our usual 3-ish mile run on Saturday morning, and then Sunday, I was going to take the time to see just how far and long I could run. Gauge where I’m at, you know?

Here’s the thing, though. I’ve discovered that, at least for me, the worst thing I can do the night before a long run is to indulge in an adult beverage or three, especially when that keeps me from getting to sleep at a decent time.

Not that I’m complaining. Our friends had invited us over for dinner, and with some family expected to invade our home in a couple of weeks, our friends also had prepared some food for us to stick in the freezer, so that we wouldn’t have to try to cook while family was in town. Very nice, greatly appreciated.

They also had picked up some Wee Mac Scottish Ale from Sun King Brewing Company that I was, of course, obligated to sample. And to make sure that the first can I had was truly a terrific representative sample of this delicious brew, I had to try a second sample. And since this particular beverage is scarce, I absolutely could not turn down the opportunity for a third sample of this truly tasty treat.

Now, the Wee Mac comes in 16-ounce cans, so technically, that’s four beers that I drank Saturday night. Not a lot, certainly … but a lot more than I’ve been used to while “training” for this half-marathon.

Why, yes, I do use “training” sarcastically there.

Anyway, it was well after 11 p.m. by the time my wife and I got to bed — again, not that late, but there was no way I was waking up at our usual running time of 5:30 a.m.

So 7 a.m. rolls around and our alarms go off. We each take our sweet time getting ready, and since we want different scenery than our usual weekday neighborhood run, we drive to a different community. The sun’s up, it’s warm out, we’re breaking in new running shoes … long story short, we hit the 15-minute mark and come to a mutual agreement that we should walk the rest of the way.

On the bright side, at least we’re moving. But Nov. 3 is going to get here a lot quicker than I want it to.

Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock …