I shoulda had a “shorter” run this weekend to begin taper time for this upcoming marathon thing but I knew if I did that I woulda regretted it come May 20th because I would have tapered for 5 weeks or so and would feel totally unprepared instead of just semi-unprepared…
I know I coulda hurt myself running this morning or something but I figured that would just be a sign I need to wait to have my first marathon be a different one. Because really, what difference would a week make if I injured myself on a run? Probably nothing. Three weeks to heal versus two weeks to heal does not really seem like a huge thing to me and I know the confidence I have from my run this morning is worth so much more than “playing it safe.” Sometimes you gotta live a little on the edge 
So instead I decided to tackle one more 20 miler and just be careful and call it quits if anything got sore or started feeling weird.
This ended up being the best decision I have made in training thus far. My run this morning went awesome! When I woke up this morning, it was POURING rain and there were storms in the forecast but I decided to not get all worked up about this until my planned departure time came. And you know what? The rain stopped and the wind died down right on time! I coulda stressed out about this but I did not. Instead I ended up with the perfect running conditions, 50ish degrees and light winds. Enough to not be cold but not be hot either. Also, the sun never fully peaked out so that helped keep things comfortable too!
I left at about 7:45am this morning and went out a 10ish mile loop with plans to stop back at the house to get a water and Gu refill. I am glad I ended up doing this because it gave me time to ask Sister to pick up a bag of ice for me for recovery and stretch a little and get more fluids and gels. After the brief break, it was off for another 9.2 mile loop!
To play things a little safe this morning, I decided to run 5 minutes and walk 1 minute. I am still surprised how much better this routine works for me! Time goes so much quicker for some reason even though I get a little confused about when to turn around, take a shot, etc. In theory, using the Galloway method shoulda slowed me down a little. I mean I spend 30+ minutes walking… but instead, it took me 10 minutes LESS than my last 20 miler! I woulda put up the splits so you could see them but um… I have a total of 66 laps from my run this morning because each walk/run interval counts as a lap. I wish I could readjust this at the end though… I might have to see if I can do anything about that!
My total time running this morning was 3:18, that is an average of 9:55! This shoulda felt like forever but once again I was surprised how time really does weird things when you are running. 3 hours at work would feel like forever but yet when I am running, time just goes by so fast! I would be lying if I said this did not give me just a little morsel of hope for finishing the marathon in less than 4:30. I really don’t want to stress about finish time for my first ever full but it’s hard to not do the math on this and see I would have about the perfect amount of time to finish a 10K if I could keep this pace the first 20 miles on the 20th. I guess only time will tell on this one but I will use it as a little bit of motivation!
I probably shoulda spent the time on this run pondering deep thoughts but instead of that, I spent many miles dreaming of my post run eats! One house I ran by was cooking breakfast potatoes and once I smelled them, that is all I could think about for a good 3-4 miles 
So of course, I spent the next 3-4 miles coming up with a way to celebrate Cinco de Mayo and also get my fried potatoes in!
Fried potatoes, ground beef, guacamole, hot sauce and 2% Chobani! I could eat this after every long run!
I probably also shoulda tried to take a nap this afternoon to rest up for babysitting tonight but instead Sister and I went to the grocery store and watched a few episodes of Lost! Hopefully I can manage to stay awake long enough for the kids to fall asleep first tonight I feel oddly awake at the moment but that will likely fade…
In hindsight, this run coulda went really poorly and left me more freaked out about Marathon Day but instead I pulled off another awesome 20 mile run and am now slightly more confident in the fact I have trained enough to make it across the finish line on May 20th. Likely not in my secret goal time but that will just give me something to work for at the next marathon, right?
Now Taper Time officially begins! It’s all downhill from here and soon I will be in Green Bay getting ready to cross a Marathon off my life list. I really find this hard to believe yet it’s kind of starting to sink in now since this last training run is over. A few short runs this week, a semi-long (8-10 miler) run next weekend and then really easy runs the week of and I will be totally done with training! Crazy! Here goes nothing!
