Bring on the taper

Last Thursday I was supposed to run my last long run: 17 miles. I was unable to get that run in due to PTA obligations. I spent Wednesday-Friday at the elementary school. Saturday, we hiked with the Tiger den and it was a blast. I love seeing Civil War ruins and I love the fact that we live in the heart of many ruins. There is such much history here in the ATL. I didn’t grow up with much history other than the Duwamish Tribe in Seattle. I still can’t get over the fact that Georgia was one of the first 13 colonies. Cool!

Sunday was a family day. Hubby FINALLY had a weekend day off and we slept in, hung out in our pajamas and then went to a birthday party. I have massive mommy guilt when it comes to doing a long run when the boys are home, especially if hubby has a much awaited weekend day off. That means today, 1.5 weeks ‘till race day, and I had 17 miles looming over me like a dark thundercloud. I hate missing my long runs, and I hate even more having them hang over my head. This morning I started out after my oatmeal breakfast and then a cliff bar. It was 66 degrees with 96% humidity. Why oh why do I always have muggy days on my long runs? Thankfully, there was a cloud cover and the sun never really came out. Phew! My first mile was strong; I then played with my pace. I was originally planning to take walk breaks at each mile marker, but knew I’d run out of steam. Yesterday, I looked at the Galloway Magic Mile page. My race pace should be 10:17-10:30 and my training pace should be 12:08. I am not running that slow on my training runs, but I clock a solid 11 minute mile for my long runs. I also discovered that I should be running four minutes and walking for just 35 seconds. After my first mile, I decided to try the 4/35 ratio. It seemed to work for me. I had very little expectations for this run. I battle ovarian cysts that rupture pretty regularly and one started up on Saturday night. I was in so much pain last night, that I broke down and popped a prescribed narcotic just to sleep. I knew that would mess with today’s run. My goal was to run 13.1 miles and whatever I clocked over that distance was just gravy.

I felt incredibly strong today. I took gels at miles 3, 6, 9 and 12. I have found that every three miles is the key to my success. I had plenty of water and didn’t run out until I hit the 13^th mile. My goal for this race next week is to finish strong and only walk when my timer goes off. I even attempted to skip some walk breaks today and I didn’t tire out as much as I had expected!

As I was approaching 11 miles I noticed that the timer was just about to break two hours. That is when I kicked it into high gear. I am working hard to pick up my pace and beat last years’ time. At 12 miles, my knees started to really hurt. As the garmin chimed at 13.1 miles, I decided to stop and walk home, there is no reason to hurt myself this close to race day. My official time for today’s 13.1 miles is 2:22:08!!! No freaking way! That is a seven-minute PR from two weeks ago and 11 minutes faster than last year’s race! Here’s to hoping I can hit that time or even beat it next week. Bring on the taper!

Happy running y’all!