The end of the long runs!!

WOW! It's done! The long runs are finished and it's time to cut back. Those 17 weeks really, really went by fast. Am I glad?? Ohhhhhhhh yeah!!!!

Met the 'girls', Kathy, Patti and Kathy at IDOT at 6:00 a.m. to run the trail.. They had another long run to do to get ready for Lewis and Clark and I had my last long run. Kevin was going to meet me later to finish up what I had to do and get in a nice long run himself.. Kaiden was going to a 10:00 birthday party at MidState Gymnastics for our neighbors' sons birthday and they offered to take him with them, so Kevin dropped him off early and headed to IDOT about 8:00.

10 miles on a bike is too much to ask of the little guy and this Birthday party thing worked out perfectly!!

The 'girls' and I ran to Rochester and back for about 10.5 miles and had a pretty decent run. Early on it wasn't too warm out yet and the shade from the trees on the trail helped, although there was absolutely no breeze at all from being surrounded by trees and that wasn't good! When we'd hit a little clearing we could feel the breeze but it wasn't very often at all.. We managed and got the 10.5 done.. good job ladies!!

Next up was Kevin and he ran 9.5 with me! I did another 20 total and he ran his longest ever, 9.5! He's working his way up to that spring half marathon, I'm tellin' ya! It was really hot and humid and without any breeze under that canapy of trees it was stiffling. Thick air, no breeze, hot! yikes!! Very very hard... we were totally drenched with sweat.. We took a couple of walk breaks (I needed them more than him!) and we got the 9.5/20 done! My pace for all 20 was between 10:00 - 10:40, which I'm very happy with.. Especially considering the humidty in that trail..

So no more long runs, and the marathon is in three weeks. The big question is, am I ready??

And I think I am! I can never be sure how any run is going to go, but based on my 'crazy long' runs recently I'm as ready as I'm going to get, and feel fairly confident. I've done 2o twice, so I feel good about getting two under my belt. It's that last 6 that scares me!! But with the crowd and being caught up in the atmosphere of the whole thing, hopefully that will be enough to carry me those last 6!!

My beer is getting warm!..........................