30 days!

In about 30 days I will toe the line at my third marathon (4th if you count my IM!). Today I ran my first 18 miler since completing Vineman last July. This week was a recovery week so my legs were ready to go! Becky and I took off early-ish this morning and ran a nice hillyish route through Brookline, Newton, and Boston. It was a cool day and I was bad at drinking water. Though my watch reminded me to drink I ignored the beeps! This became apparent when I experienced a shooting oblique cramp around mile 15. STUPID ROOKIE error. I should know better, but hey better to happen now than on race day! Sometimes I think I don't need to follow the rules because I am an experienced athlete and pretty fit. The good news is that my legs felt great. And I am feeling pretty good 9 hours later. Granted, I have been relaxing all day, but I am pleased with my current physical state. My goal is still to complete the marathon in 3:40-3:45. I've been running my long runs at sub-9 min milers with the exception of today, and hey I felt like I was going to die. HA! My legs and body seem to feel better as I increase my mileage. Weird. This confirms that I am, in fact, and endurance athlete. My body falls into this awesome rhythm around min 5 with each long run. Its like I settle in to a comfy place on the couch. I love that part of endurance training and racing! Ten years ago this April I completed my first Boston Marathon. It's amazing to me how far I have come. I had not idea what I was doing, trained poorly, ate poorly, fueled and hydrated poorly. Yet somehow I made it to the finish line and came back for more. The second marathon I did (again Boston) I trained and ate smarter, finishing a smidge faster. Then I did an IM and everything changed. A marathon became and easy conquest. Something I could approach not to just finish but to finish faster. Something I wasn't scared of. It is my humble opinion that I am hugely smarter and will be faster this year. Unless something crazy happens...its 89 degrees, I get injured, or experience some weird GI issues, I should at least finish sub-4. I don't usually write about anything other than my training, but a huge life event has occurred in the last 10 days. I was laid off. Life has been pretty damn good for the last 3 years, no major life crisis, so really I was due for one. HA! The good thing is that I have a huge support system and a method for dealing with my stresses. For now I will train my little heart out.