Just a 1/2 Marathon …

Can you believe those words came out of my mouth this weekend? Weeks ago 13.1 miles was the longest I’ve ever ran and on Saturday it was my last long run before the marathon! It’s crazy how your perspective on a distance changes as you log longer miles. Don’t get me wrong – running “just a 1/2 marathon” is not easy. I truly respect the distance – in fact I think I love 13.1 miles.

You don’t understand how good it felt sleeping until 7:40 on a Saturday!! I’ve been getting up at 5am since training started and its really the part that I hated most about training. Weather.com said the rain would stop by 10am so I arranged to meet with my training buddy at 9am (I should mention there was no rain when I woke up). Before I left, my mother (she was visiting for the weekend) asked me how many miles I had to do and I answered; “just a half marathon today”.

My training buddy ran a marathon last weekend. She said she felt good enough to run all 13 but after 8 miles her legs were screaming at her to stop. I didn't want her to get injured so I told her I would finish the 5 on my own. I think running the last 5.3 miles on my own was good for me. I was thinking about the marathon & my training. I reflected on how 16 weeks prior my longest distance was a half marathon. I ended up running much faster then planned – my last mile clocked in at 9:56!

TOTAL:  13.35 miles in 2:23 (10:45/pace)

So here I am in the middle of tapering and all I can think about is the marathon. I still have 13 more days to obsess. I really think I may drive myself crazy!