Oct. 21 - Regaining the Mental Edge

Sorry for the Tony Robbins-esque title, but it accurately describes the impact of my run on Sat Oct 19.  Since my last blog entry, I had a very easy 4.4 mile run Th morning, an inspiring 13.1 mile run on Sat and a light 4.1 mile jog on Mon.  Two weeks out from the marathon, I limited my long run to a half marathon, and decided to run at a challenging but not debilitating pace.  I ran the Colchester Half Marathon course which as I've noted before is very hilly.  I felt strong the entire run, coming in at 7:45/mi, well ahead of my 8:00/mi goal.  The best mile was #13, up hill, in 7:39.

The challenging part now is to use this run correctly on race day.  The run definitely mitigates the 18.7 mile downer from Fri Oct 11 (I bonked badly).  However, like most marathoners, my trouble zone is the last file miles of the race (21-26) and a strong 13 mile run doesn't tell you much about how prepared you are for that part of the race.  I would love to target 8 min/mi for the marathon, and the half on Sat temps me to think about that pace, but a better barometer was the 21 miler I did on Sun Sept 29 (8:44/mi).  I ran very comfortably on a hilly course and finished with gas in the tank.  That leads me to believe 8:30/mi is a fair target pace.  This would equate to a 3:42 marathon finish.

For those who just navigated the last two paragraphs, congratulations on surviving the rant of runner during the two-week taper before the race.  With the race this close, and now dialing back on miles, I am left with a lot of nervous energy about the big day, which in my case has me constantly thinking about the right pace.  Ellie may demand that I put a dollar in the jar every time I say "minutes per mile".

To refocus on the more important matter for a moment, here's the update on sponsors:

Mile 1: Linda Krosky-Molfetta
Mile 2: Betty Dillon
Miles 3-7: Amy Shelin Primorac
Miles 8-17: Terry Quinn
Mile 18: Kelly O'Hara Cota
Miles 19-21: Vicki Pernek
Mile 22-23: Vin Lyon-Callo/Len Gutman
Mile 24: Jennifer Iaccarino/Len Gutman
Miles 25-26: Juli Giampaolo Soracin

total raised $280 + my $260 match = $540

Thanks everyone!

Recent Lines:

Date

DoW

ToD

Distance

Time

Min/Mile

Notes

Effort

Total Miles

10/17	Th	7:30a	4.4	38:39:00	8:50:40	0	0	1188.0
10/18	F	0	0.0	0:00:00	0:00:00	0	0	1188.0
10/19	Sa	9:45a	13.1	1:41:50	7:45:21	0	0	1201.1
10/20	Su	0	0.0	0:00:00	0:00:00	0	0	1201.1
10/21	M	3:50p	4.1	31:06:00	7:38:29	0	0	1205.2