It's the Fiiiinaaaall Count Doooownn (kinda)

Saturday
Distance - TWENTY THREE FRIGGIN MILES
Pace - 10:26

DUDE!  DUDE!  23 miles!!!  Done.  Holy sweet baby, I did it!!!!!!!!!!!!!  And although it was seriously one of the worst runs of the season, it was in many other ways, easier and more of a confidence boost than the 20 and change run from last Saturday.  Wooop!

About this run:
I got in a smidge more sleep than I intended to with a few snooze alarms, and only ended up with 5.5 before miles.  Uneventful, except to note that it now takes me a seriously long arse time to warm up.  I consider this good, especially considering how fearful I've become of the training courses, and given the fact that marathons are not sprints, but I like sprinting.  If long mileage keeps me from setting a 5K PR on 10/9, that's a good thing!  The course after did NOT disappoint (in its disappointmentness).  In fact, I think to date, this is one of Enrique's MOST diabolical.  So, yea, banking time during the first 5.5 might have helped me out with pace, but it would not have helped me out with finishing!  To the tune of having walked one entire hill, along with ALL the marathoners including the leads (almost 10-20 people in the pod this time!).  Some dropped back to 11 minute pace all together.  So one walked hill, I am owning happily.  The rest of the time, I reduced pace, but held steady.  Actually, forget reduced pace.  I threw pace OUT. THE. WINDOW.  And I couldn't really be any more proud of having done that and still feeling so badass.  Obsessed with pace Judy really just owned .. and I mean completely owned the idea that finishing REALLY MATTERS.  That slowing down is okay when conditions are HARDER than they will be on race day, and that the WHOLE thing doesn't have to be a race.  I think a big saving grace was that I made a deal with myself: run Long Slow Distance until you are blue in the face (literally), but if 4:30 is possible, give yourself that pace for the last 2-3 miles.  If you can do it at mile 23, when you're the MOST beat up, it will be telling.  And of course, no sooner than with two miles to go, picking up the pace felt natural, and with one mile to go, who but Brandi would run out of the parking lot to help me finish!  I could have cried .. if I had been able to shed a tear.  I pushed hard, and finished my last mile in 9:17!

Issues:  If I paused my watch, it restarted.  Period.  That was annoying.  I wanted one run on the Garmin.  I got three.  Oh well.  The other issue was GI. I *rarely* worry about GI stuff AT ALL.  But on two fronts, this run was different.  Warning: there is no TMI in running.  If you don't need to know, skip the next paragraph or two.  GI issue one: system does not like ripe banana for breakfast.  Learned the hard way to either not eat them, or at the very least, to give an adequate amount of time for digestion between breakfast and run.  Unfortunately, nothing by way of a stop that could accommodate until something like mile 10!  Not. fun.  GI issue two: something that bothered me a little last week, too.  Immediately after the run, it stung to go, and that feeling bothered me for a good 6-8 hours post-run.  Perhaps its cycle-related.  Got my period on Saturday afternoon, too.

Sunday
Distance - 2 miles
Pace - whatever


Wow, its been ages since I ran in the rain!  A very emotional moment in our training, as a last of my 4 "CHI-Besties" crosses her peak distance!!!