KaraMoran

I finished a 20-mile run yesterday. It went better than I expected, and I’m finally condfident that I will finish the race in three weeks. The first seven miles were awesome, the middle six were a little rough, and the last seven were great. I took some ibuprofen going into the final nine miles, and I think that made a huge difference. I’ve been having a lot of pain in my hip flexor, and that seemed to take care of it.
I’m really looking forward to the race experience!

I finished a 16-mile run last night, and I was actually really happy with how it went. For the first time in this whole training session, I now feel pretty confident in being able to finish the marathon. My times were better than I had hoped, even though they’re far from fast (9:30 miles through the first nine miles, 10:22 average through the whole thing). I felt pretty good when I was finished, and I think that if I feel this good now, in seven weeks I’ll only feel better!

I finished a 12-mile run last night. I’m really proud of this in light of two facts: 1.) I hadn’t run a single mile since my 11-mile run on Monday and 2.) I had spent the last three days celebrating my best friend’s wedding.
It was actually a pretty solid run. The first 5 miles went really well, then I ran into some friends who I hadn’t seen in a while, so I walked with them for probably 5-10 minutes. The next 5 miles also went pretty well. I’d be lying if I didn’t mention that in the final two miles I might have stretched my walks across the street a little long, but I figure there’s nothing wrong with taking a couple walk breaks. I’d rather not, but at least I was moving.
I had water breaks every four-five miles, and I believe they’re closer together on the real course. I need to figure that out. I think that 20-30 second break at each water stop makes a big difference.
I can already tell that the biggest difference between training for this and training for the half last summer is going to be mental. I was elated after finishing my first 10-mile run last year. Yesterday I was just really tired and kept thinking that I’m still not quite to the halfway point.
On the bright side, I’ve got just about nine weeks left to train, and so far the book I’m using hasn’t led me astray. I just need to have faith that if I keep putting in the miles, I’ll be able to finish the race.