Marathon Training Week Twenty

Well, the really long runs are over now and we're officially into our taper weeks--our total miles this week was only 29, as compared to our 40 miles this last week, so this week definitely felt a lot easier.

We ran out 8 miles outside on Wednesday night since it was actually kinda cool, and it was a good run--I ran all 8 at or under my race pace, which was fun. My book on tape is really good, which always helps. :)

On Wednesday night though, Landon found out he was running a fever and has been sick all week, so the rest of the runs I was on my own. We figured it was way more important that he get well, since we have the marathon in 2 weeks and Joseph was this weekend and next.

He's pretty much feeling better now, and did an awesome job in the show despite being sick, and I'm just hoping I didn't catch whatever he had!!

On Saturday morning I got up and did my 12 miles, the last "long" run we have, since our Saturday run next week is only 8 miles. I forgot my Garmin, so I couldn't check my pace as I was running, but I was able to find my race pace and pretty much hold it the whole time without my Garmin to pace me, which was really exciting, since that's something I've struggled with during the training. I finished all 12 miles in about 2 hours and 10 minutes--so a little under an 11 minute per mile pace--which is slow, I know, but right on track for my marathon goal time. :)

I rewarded myself with a Smoothie King, then raced home to get ready for a little family reunion for Landon's family around lunchtime, then headed out to SugarLand to get ready for Joseph. Since we're about to have to run 26.2 miles in a few weeks, its comforting to know that we can now run 12 and feel fine--which was definitely not the case a few months ago when we had to run 12 miles for the first time.

I have moments where I'm a little nervous about the marathon, but overall I'm just ready for it to be here and to see how it goes and what we can do! We've trained as hard as we could and we've been at it since February, only missing maybe three or four runs on our training program since then, so I think we're as ready as we're going to be!

Fourteen days and counting!!