Week 25: Twenty-six miles!

Yay! I did it! And now I can relax with my two eight-milers until the marathon itself.

The run went well. Fortunately, the weather wasn't as bad as it could have been -- it was cloudy all day, which isn't that fun to run in, but didn't get all that cold or windy. I wore my sweatpants and sweatshirt over a tee-shirt, and was plenty warm enough. In fact, I took my sweatshirt off for an hour or so in the afternoon.

I started at 8:05 am, running 75 loops around the house -- eight miles, according to my measurement of the number of loops it takes to make a mile in my truck. That took about two and a half hours at 1:2, with a quick break at about an hour for a slightly wonky digestion. Then I took my usual break after the eight miles to drink a protein drink, use the bathroom, refill my water bottle and call my mom to tell her I was on my way, and hit the road at about 10:45 am.

Made it to mom's house at around 1:20, took another break, and headed down to the park. I decided to do 10 loops at the park and then run back up the hill to mom's. I was pretty tired by the time I got done, but felt ok. Arrived back at mom's at 4:05, making the day a total of just about exactly eight hours. I didn't time my breaks, but they probably added up to about 15 minutes or so. I felt like I was keeping up my pace pretty well. It comes out to just under 18-minute miles, if you subtract the break times, or just over 18-minutes miles if you don't.

Anyway, I finished! Yay! I'm so glad to have that over with, and the marathon only three weeks away. I'm really glad I decided to do this marathon, but it will be good to finish the training and take some time off.