Eeek! I’m still here & I’m still alive. Just running.  (Well except for last week. I took 6 day hiatus from running. That’s okay right?)

But I got back on the horse yesterday with a 6-miler in the rain, and back in the saddle tomorrow morning with an 8-miler in the cold.  This Saturday is my LAST GTS (I get to do my last long run pre-marathon in RICHMOND!!) so excited to have a great 16-miler with friends & celebrate with breakfast afterwards!

T-8 runs ‘til Marathon day!

Xoxo!

Tuesday Views

Skipping runs is notttt exactly an option for me these days.  This morning my first alarm went off at 5:30am so I could be up and out for a 6-miler.  I hit snooze 7 times.  NBD.

BUT. I did finally drag my a$$ out of bed at 6:20 and was out the door.

It was nice that it was already light out and I didn’t have to mess with my headlamp.  And once I ran Centennial Park and was on my way back home, I couldn’t get over how awesome my views were to my right & left:

Everybody look to the left... (Vandy Stadium)

Everybody look to the right. (Centennial Park)

I also factored out in my head that I only have to run 10 more times before the marathon.  Can we say this girl is READY???

The big 2-0

I am officially tapering. Praise the Lord.

Saturday was our LONG, LONG, LONG run at 20 miles.  Our plan said 20-22 miles but my body has been straight-up telling me since day 1 that 20 would be where I headed.

There were, of course, good moments and bad moments.  That’s bound to happen when you’re running for over 3 hours but I feel like I’ve really gotten my pre-run food, my mid-run fuel and post-run eating tricks down.  (Although I will say, I did try ONE new thing yesterday & probably won’t do it again.  But good to know that the Stinger Waffle gives me heartburn!)

I maxed out my phone battery and at mile 19.1 I got the “Low battery” message. I basically tried to sprint for the last 0.9 miles because there was no way in blue blazes I wasn’t going to have my GPS say 20 miles.

I’d say the best thing about Saturday was that I truly believed I could go for 6 more miles. 

With this taper, I want to keep my intensity up so I still have lots of miles to log but race day will be here any day now!

Some Pics:

Pre-Run Carb Loading on Friday. Yummy Pumpkin Bagel

A number I never thought I'd see.

Most girls ask for Starbucks gift cards for their birthdays. My mom knows me better ;)

Dudes. Best Post Run dinner ever. Complete with Cookies 'n Cream Milkshake. Drool

Work wins again.

Didn’t post yesterday.

Didn’t make it to Yoga yesterday.

But after an 8 hour client meeting, I did head straight to a bar and told my team that I couldn’t “have one single discussion about the days’ meetings without a glass of wine in front of my face.”  They were supportive and joined me.

8 mile run tonight followed by Google Hangouting with my best Princesses.  Yayyyyy!!!

Post 2 of 2 today - 30th birthday run

Saturday. I turned 30.

30^th birthday, booyah!

Our GTS on Saturday morning was a “drop week” at 14 miles.  We were meeting to run at Percy Warner Park, which I had never run in before.  I was LATE to GTS.  Long story but the resolve is that I didn’t pay attention & walked up as they were breaking out to run.  My running buddy Jenny & I headed out together for 14 miles while everyone else was dropping WAY back to 8.

Soooo basically it was the WORST RUN OF MY LIFE. THE WORST.  I never want to experience it again (even though I know I will at some point.)  We got lost having never run in PWP before & essentially being left on our own with a terrible route map.  After getting lost, we got ourselves found again and even though we were both feeling awful, we kept trying to push each other along.  At 10 miles we thought we were golden.  We were wrong.

At 10 miles, instead of being 4 miles from the finish, we were still about 7 miles from the finish – from the getting lost thing.  We just keep losing more and more steam.

Our mentor for TNT called to check on our location – which was a place called “at the top of 9 mile hill.”  9 mile hill. You do the math.  She knew exactly where we were and said she was on her way. At that point, we knew we were done.  I absolutely had nothing left in me to give.  We did 13.2 miles.

It’s so hard to run 13.2 miles on your 30^th birthday and feel like you failed.  Obviously I know I didn’t fail, but it was my first time to be picked up by a sweeper and that just does something for the psyche.  I cried.  Jenny cried.  I cried more in the car.  Then I took a nap and decided to get over myself.

I’m so lucky to have gone through that terrible run WITH a friend – along with having 2 great, supportive fellow TNT’ers come and pick us up.  In a text message later that day, I was comforted even more with this message:

It reminded me of how far I have come, not only in the last 15 weeks, but the last year.  I’m getting ready to run a marathon & I’m raising money to save people’s lives with cancer.  A bad run is forgotten the next day & should always be treated as a lesson for next time.

Onward!

Post 1 of 2 today

This is a pretty big week for me – I start to TAPER after this weekend.  With that said, I was planning on posting every day this week. Obviously today is Tuesday so I already failed, but today you’ll get a 2-for-1.

I just finished my LAST week day 10-miler.  I contemplated running it alone vs. running with my friends out in Brentwood.  With the craziness I’m dealing with at work, I figured I needed to just get the run in in my own ‘hood and get to work.

I also rocked my new running headlamp for the first time ever.  Only lasted with it through mile 4’ish, but it was definitely helpful at 5am!

After Saturday’s run (you’ll hear about that in post #2 today) I needed a good run & this was definitely it.  First of all: 10 miles alone? Rock On, NP!  Second of all: Well, really the first of all matters the most to me. It was just me & my head and the cool temperatures and beautiful scenery of Centennial Park & The Greenway. (I know that was a run-on, but all of those things were important today!)  I really did feel great and I will more than likely NEVER run 10 miles before work again, so “So long, farewell” to long weekday runs. You’ve been great. I also won’t miss you.