T-4 weeks to SFM

This weekend was the last set of 10/22 mile runs prior to the race, normally I run 'em Sat/Sun, but due extended family flying in to visit on Saturday afternoon, we shifted to Fri/Sat.

So, ran 10 miles at 9:05 pace on Friday morning, but then we had an opera on Friday night (The Valkyrie...really well done) , and didn't get to bed to 1am. Had to get up at 6:30am for the long run so we could be done in time for guest arrival...sigh..this keeps happening.

I'll spare you the micro-blogging of gory details: after a sketchy first couple of miles (sleepy and stiff from previous day) had a great run holding 9:25 pace for the first 16 miles and then dragging the average pace down to 9:12 by speeding up to ~9:00 pace for the last 6 miles. This is really too fast (too close to race pace) for the long run (they say), but I really needed to do it for confidence. I'll take it easy if I'm too beat up the next couple of days.

The photo shows my favorite gadget: my Garmin 405 GPS watch with the time, distance and average pace of that run. Also on my wrist is a piece of string that's getting a bit old. It's a "blessing" from a Thai monk that I received in northern Thailand back in April. I figured I'd leave it on for good luck and take it off after my race ;)


Listen closely now, you're hearing it here first: I plan to do a sub-4 hour marathon. (9:09 pace). This is about 15 minutes faster than my current PR.

If this seems crazy, consider that any of my 22 mile runs (Done after 10 milers the previous day) I feel I could have stretched to a full 26.2 without too much trouble and blown out my PR. So I think I'm good.

I also have 4 weeks before the race...an extra week for a bit of recovery and then more marathon pace running before the taper. (Note to self: Need to break in my new pair of shoes for the race before then!)

Therefore, barring the unforeseeable (weather, catching a cold, etc.) I think I'm going to be good to go. I may join a pacing group (never done that) or just go it alone.

I have some other tricks up my sleeve I'll share when the day gets closer ;)

-p