marathon update

Last Saturday marked the end of my "real" training for the marathon. The plan said do 22 miles for the long run so I did 22 miles. It was the best run I've had yet.  It took forever, but I never promised to be fast. I just didn't want to quit and I only walked a couple of short hills. It felt great.

Then earlier this week I did Yasso 800's for speedwork and was surprised that I was able to do them in 5:00.  (For you non-runner's who are still reading, the theory is that if you can do 10x800m in 5:00 with a 5:00m recovery in between then you should be able to complete a 5 hour marathon.)  Since I don't really have a goal for the race except to finish, I was assuming all along that I'd probably finish somewhere around 5:20:00 or 5:30:00, a little more than double my half marathon time.

All of my recent long runs have been horrible up until this past one. A couple of weeks ago when we were supposed to hit 20 miles for the third time, I walked more than ever before (about 4 or 5 miles, I think?) and it's been really discouraging but it's part of the training process to go on that up and down roller coaster ride of "I can't do this" ...  "No wait, maybe I can do this." Saturday's success made me feel like the race is already over. I already feel like I've accomplished my goals and no matter what happens on race day I know I will tell you that I'm glad I did this.

There's no doubt that my family has made great sacrifices for me to train for this race. My mom and husband especially have pulled a lot more weight with my kids than I have over the last few months.  I think they both deserve a medal at the finish line. My sister has picked up my kids from school a couple of times so that I could squeeze a run in before their evening activities. It's certain that I couldn't have done this training without my family's support.

My dad has trained with me and while my friend Michelle wanted to train for the same race, she ended up getting injured and not being able to run for the last three months.  Another friend, Kristine committed and she has met my dad and I for many an early Saturday morning long run. Without the two of them, I would have spent plenty of hours on the roads out there going insane.

It has been incredibly rewarding. The challenge of it has made me feel strong and the amount my body can handle has amazed me. I know it's not over yet, but I really feel like God has blessed me immensely throughout this whole process.

I've given a lot of thought to whether or not I'll do another one and at this point it's still totally up in the air but one thing is for certain and that is that I'm not going to fail.

(Plus, let's be real. It's a lot of fun to eat an extra 2900 extra calories on weekends.)