Week 9 : Rainy Week Ends with an "Easy" 11 Miler

To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. - Romans 2:7

Running in the rain is nice occasionally. It's fun to have something to worry about other than just hearing your own huff 'n' puffs down the street. The only drawback is having large raindrops wack ya in the eyeball while you're trying to keep the pace. All in all, it was a good week. The midweek runs were good with a nice 7 mile pace run. I really am trying to keep my pace runs under 9:00 miles in order to have a marathon time under 4 hours. I do wonder when it comes raceday, what I will do. I don't want to go out too fast for fear of totally pooping out down the stretch. That's right, I said pooping. But, I don't want to start too slow and finish even slower. I think my best bet is going to be lining up near a pace team and doing my best to keep pace. Maybe if I underestimate, I can take off and leave the pace team in the dust! We'll see...

Week 11 Runs:

Tue: 4 miles
Wed: 7 miles (pace run @ 8:43 avg. pace)
Thur: 4 miles
Sat: 11 miles ~ 1 hr 42 min. 36 sec. - 9:23 avg. pace

Well, 11 miles didn't seem so scary this time as I've conquered the 14 and 15 mile distances since. It was a nice little run and I felt good after. It's kind of funny to say/hear myself saying 11 miles was a "little" run. The long runs don't worry me so much any more. I have just gotten into a mode of heading out the door and finishing it. I feel like I'm prepared and I know what I have to do, I just have to train my body to make the whole distance. When I'm finished with my long runs, I find myself thinking, "Only 'x' more miles to the full marathon distance. I can do this thing!" Definitely keeping positive through this process.

I'm good enough, I'm strong enough, and doggone it, I'm gonna finish this thing!