New Year...New Goals

I know, it's a swimming blog, but I've got to post one last marathon training update...

6 am, Old Town Alexandria. It's dark out, barely anyone around. Two runners stretching near the running path. Yep, that was me this morning.

My friend Brandon and I set out to do our long run, his a little shorter than mine and at a much faster pace. After a mile, he went ahead and I was left with just myself and my thoughts. I will spare you the details of exactly what went through my head over the next 3 1/2 hours, but let's just say that there was a lot of Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run going on in there. I think I had this song in my head for about 18 of the 22 miles.

It was a beautiful day and I finished the run with a huge sense of accomplishment and relief. I had FINALLY trained for a marathon, and it's over. Only three weeks of taper left until race day.

Based on Brandon's GPS (I ran most of his route, just slower) and mapping the rest on mapmyrun, I came to the conclusion that I ran AT LEAST 22 miles today at around a 9:30 pace. The first half was probably closer to a 9:10-9:15 pace, then mostly 9:30-9:40ish on the way back and then I just blew it on the last 3 miles, but suffered through and tried not to get too slow, but it was definitely a nice shuffle to the end.

I got to work around 11 am this morning and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be to have to sit at my desk all day. I don't feel half as bad as I did after the 19 mile run. I'm really not that sore. My hips are achy, but quads are ok. This is good!

I'm off to Florida tomorrow and intend on soaking up as much sun and warmth as I can. And if we swim, which I'm sure we will, I'll be sure to let you know about it.

Thanks for reading my running updates, even though this is a swimming forum