The big race is getting close and I am a little bit nervous but Sunday’s training run on the NRV Trail was beautiful!!

For our last 20 miler Alison and I decided to make a day of it.  We have done 18 and 20 mile runs around Roanoke… it is hard to find that kind of stretch of road that is flat near the lake…

Sunday I met Alison at her house at 9:30… we both were packed for the day of running fun… snacks.. check… water.. check… Powerade… check… energy gels (with caffeine) check…  we were on our way to Wytheville to the NRV Trail near the Shot Tower… we were told it was 60 miles of flat trail with beautiful views along the way… the parking lot we ended up in was not much to look at… gravel with a small path leading to a trail entrance…

Once we started we quickly learned a few things… running on flat ground is GREAT compared to asphalt or concrete… we couldn’t have picked a better time of year to train for a marathon because the leaves were absolutely beautiful… and be very careful of horse “doo” that is sometimes covered by the leaves.. there were a couple of really close calls for me… it is too close to the race to break in a pair of new shoes…

As we left the car we were running 5 miles out one way and back to the car for a quick pit stop then 5 miles in the other direction and back for a total of 20 miles…

During our first ten miles we did not encounter many people… mostly squirrels that would dart in front of us.. one of them so fast it startled us both - among our back and forth conversation you could hear the rapids of the river flowing next to us… at some points the wall side of the trail was 20 feet high or more…I joked that I should have brought my repelling gear… ( don’t repel and I don’t care for heights)  Alison caught the sarcasm right off the bat…

At our 5 mile turn-a-round we were feeling great… finished the first ten at the car and then started the next leg of our journey.. and it was a bit of a journey - for our next five miles we went over a couple of wooden bridges and ran through a tunnel that went through the mountain… the scenery went from river… to fields with giant bales of hay… to an industrial section with all kinds of warning signs… then the tunnel… and then we turned around at 15 and did it all over again…

I can’t imagine training for a marathon without a partner or running buddy… Alison and I both looked forward to the 20 mile run - not just because it was our last before the race but because we had a beautiful backdrop and great company… we talk about a range of things but after 2 hours and 45 minutes a silence usually falls over us… all you can hear is the cadence of our feet hitting the ground… we aren’t in competition with each other… rather I told Alison I feel like we are the team.. playing against everyone else…

Around mile 17 my right leg was really fatigued… I felt a slight pain run from my hip to my ankle on the outer part of it… we slowed our pace a little bit… then I took my third and last gel and both combined really helped…

We were going to take more than these two pictures… we had about 4 minutes left in the whole run… there was a bridge we were coming close to that had a breath-taking view… after the pain in my right leg I told Alison that if we stopped it would take a lot to crank that leg up and get started again and we were so close to our goal I didn’t want to fall even a few minutes short… because of that we opted not to stop and kept going… shortly after the car was in view… Alison’s car has never looked so beautiful!!!

We got finished and then grabbed a few things from the car and stretched out in a little patch of grass by the parking lot… it was hard to get back up but we did and at that point it was time for lunch… we stopped at Subway at Love’s Truck Stop and the lady who waited on us was in such a good mood it added that much more to the sub sandwich that tasted as good as any cut of filet I have ever had…

After our quick stop we were on our way back to Roanoke and while we were both happy to have the run behind us… my feelings were bitter sweet - heavy on the sweet… and light on the bitter… I am going to miss our long runs.. the conversation.. the amazing fitness… the anticipation of achieving a well earned goal… who knows we may end up training for another one… I’ll keep you posted on that one.