Dread Week... Done!

I have been dreading this week since April. Seriously. April is when I started training for this stupid marathon, and when I looked at this week, the pinnacle of all weeks, I saw the impossible. My "short" on Tuesday and Thursday were 5 miles each, and my "longer short" run was 10 miles on Wednesday. TEN MILES on a Wednesday morning. Considering when I ran 9 miles on my long run way back when and I almost died, you can see why 10 miles and then getting ready for work held no appeal for me. But you know what? I did it. And, it really wasn't so bad. Other than having to set my alarm clock for 4 AM, the runs themselves were pretty smooth. And then...

This weekend was the mother of all runs, at least until the actual race itself. TWENTY MILES! I was planning on running it on Saturday, but we had our zoo picnic day for work, and I knew I wanted to get their early for the kids and to make use of all the attraction tickets (train, carousel, butterfly exhibit) before it got too crowded, so skipped running yesterday because I was worried about running twenty and then not being able to go to the zoo. Instead, I ran this morning. It didn't start out well. The first five miles I cursed all the junk food I ate at the zoo yesterday at the picnic. Miles 5-13 were actually pretty good. Miles 14-20 were give and take, some felt good, some not so much. From the time I left I watched a storm coming in and wasn't sure if I'd make it or not. Luckily, the storm passed just south of us and, while I got rained on, it definitely brought the temperature down and felt good.

When I got home, I was laughing. Between the pillars on the front of our house, Dave and the kids put up a toilet paper finish line with a big sign saying "FINISH LINE". It made my recovery go that much smoother. My legs are still a little achy yet tonight, but a little more stretching and an early bedtime and I think I'll be good to go. Now it's just short 8, 10, 13 mile runs until the race. There's even a couple of 3-mile runs during the week. I don't know what I'll do with myself!!