I almost ran a marathon today....

...but not quite. My training schedule called for an easy 24 miles- I don't think 24 miles is easy by any means, but you do what you have to do to get the job done. I spent most of the weekend freaking out about the distance, trying to motivate myself and pump myself up. I was hoping that the weather would be decent because there was absolutely no way I would ever run 24 on the TM. Either me or the TM wouldn't make it out alive!

I slept in on Sunday a bit- didn't crawl out of bed until 7:30. Of course it was raining. I mean really, it was pouring. Made my oatmeal and coffee and decided to catch up on some blog reading. By the time I looked back outside it was snowing. Really? Snow? YUCK. I was planning on being out the door no later than 9 am, but waited to see if the weather would break. It didn't so I was out the door at 9:30. At that point I knew that I just had to buck up and get it over with.

I felt like the run went pretty good despite the horrid weather. It's never fun to run in the rain, but when you add the wind, snow & hail it really makes for a miserable outing. The first couple of miles went by pretty fast which surprised me. The puddle jumping was annoying- I am apparently not good at it because my feet were drenched! I was freezing cold despite my layering attempts, but started to warm up about 5 miles in.

The first half of my run I did on the s.hill. I cut my Glenrose loop short because the headwind was killing me. I took the hill on the backside of 29th because I figured the hill was going to feel better than getting the wind sucked out of me. UGH.

Before I headed downtown I did a quick fueling stop at my house @ 11.52 miles. Had some gatorade, water, and a PB GU. I contemplated my decision to run downtown, especially once I got downtown and realized that the only way home was "up". Lovely. Ran the Centennial Trail Loop through the park twice. Stopped at mile 17 for a Vanilla GU and some gatorade. A homeless guy tried to talk to me- my  mistake for stopping on the Monroe Bridge. He was pretty drunk. :-)

The reason why I stopped on the bridge was because I wanted to take a photo of the spectacular Spokane Falls....the homeless guy freaked me out so I kept running until I could get to the other side and take a picture.

Random fact: did you know that the Spokane Falls is the only urban waterfall in the US????

My feet and calves started to hurt around mile 17, but thankfully the hamstrings felt pretty good and my stride was good. I think that my icing & stretching routine along with my chiropractor, Dr. Ray, has been a huge help!

The last 10K seemed like it took forever! Mostly because I was running a portion of it back up the hill (stupid me!) in the freaking wind. Once I hit 22 miles I was ecstatic, and also wishing I didn't have to run two more miles! I found another gear and powered through it while repeating to myself that I could do this and that  I was strong enough to finish. It also helped knowing that I had a Starbucks cake pop waiting for me on the kitchen counter. :-)

Tired, frozen, sore, but DONE!!!!

My reward :-)

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	3:12:40.1	24.00	8:02
1	8:32.7	1.00	8:33
2	8:09.0	1.00	8:09
3	8:02.8	1.00	8:03
4	8:03.0	1.00	8:03
5	8:00.0	1.00	8:00
6	8:02.0	1.00	8:02
7	8:07.0	1.00	8:07
8	8:05.0	1.00	8:05
9	7:58.0	1.00	7:58
10	7:51.7	1.00	7:52
11	7:54.0	1.00	7:54
12	8:13.2	1.00	8:13
13	8:17.2	1.00	8:17
14	7:50.0	1.00	7:50
15	8:07.6	1.00	8:08
16	7:56.0	1.00	7:56
17	7:51.5	1.00	7:51
18	8:05.3	1.00	8:05
19	7:55.0	1.00	7:55
20	7:55.8	1.00	7:56
21	7:59.9	1.00	8:00
22	8:00.0	1.00	8:00
23	7:58.3	1.00	7:58
24	7:45.1	1.00	7:44

I have one more 24 mile training run before my official taper craziness begins. Tapering for me isn't pretty. I know that some people have talked about tapering for Boston and what emotions they go through. I am a complete b*tch when I am tapering. Everyone has been forewarned. :-)

As of today it is officially less than 4 weeks until the Eugene Marathon. I feel more fit than I ever have before and I feel more prepared to tackle the distance than I did at CIM. I think that my coach has down an outstanding job preparing me for this. I am looking forward to seeing what plans he has for me after April.

Questions for you:


Anyone else have a great workout this weekend?

When training for a marathon what is the longest long run you have completed?

Does anyone else turn psycho and emotional during tapering? :-)

--Tasha