Nurse on the Run

With the marathon a month away, I figured I better attempt some longer runs to determine the chances of success on marathon day.  I’m currently counting “success” as “finishing” instead of attempting for a real time goal.  With a complete month off of running, I’m not so sure it’s the best idea to try to set a new PR this time around.  Since I got my BQ already, I think it’s okay to just run this marathon “for fun.”  Plus, I don’t really want to injure myself further by attempting to run hard on not the greatest training, especially since I want to run Boston this spring!

Anyway, since I still want to run Philly in November, I need to test the long run waters.  I didn’t really want to overdue it, so I went for a “long” eight miles.  Long in the sense that it’s more than I’ve run in the past month, but short in the sense of…EIGHT MILES?  That’s not far!!  That used to be an easy mid-week run.  Not even my long midweek run!  But you have to start somewhere, so start I did.

I’m happy to report that the long run went as well as can be expected.  For the first two miles, I kept thinking, “There’s no WAY I can run a marathon!  It’s never going to work…24 more miles??  I don’t think so.”  But I kept on running anyway.  No pain, just a feeling that I didn’t have my marathon legs under me…you know, the ones that you train for 18 weeks to get?  Not there.  However, once I hit the turnaround point (of four glorious miles), I felt much better.  Keeping a decent pace no longer felt like a chore, and I was able to enjoy the crisp fall air.  (Which I’m hoping sticks around for another month…wishful thinking!)  I was able to finish without pain…and I don’t have any pain later in the evening either.  Woohoo!

Sunday, October 25
8.15 miles in 1:07:05, avg pace of 8:14

Not too shabby.  That makes for a not-so-even 24.44 miles for the week, which is a pretty good week back from injury, I like to think.  I would like to get in a 13 mile run prior to the marathon (for the mental side of it, more than anything), so I’m thinking of maybe doing a long run of 10-ish next week and then 13 the week after, leaving a two week taper.  If you have any other brilliant ideas, I’d be happy to hear them. 

Congrats to Kristin who ran a PR at the Marine Corps Marathon today!

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I believe my funk last week has been resolved by a monthly visitor…I should have guessed!