I was a little nervous about our first 18 mile run this past weekend… but we made it in under a ten minute pace and I felt pretty good afterward…

I usually meet Alison at her house - we run 3.5 out one direction then 3.5 back then 5.5 out the other way toward and utilizing part of the greenway and then 5.5 back… when you break a task down into comprehensible pieces it makes the job… in this case the run… less daunting.

Now, we tack on two more miles for a 20 mile long run next weekend… it is really crazy when you say the words out loud… 20 miles… that means running for well over 3 hours… I could not do it without a training partner… I don’t have enough songs on my iPod to last that long… and I don’t run very well by myself unless I have music to occupy my mind…

So I fell asleep kind of early Saturday night and felt great on Sunday… since it is my “rest” day from running I was checking off the to do list left and right… I got completely caught up on laundry… finished painting the bathroom (the trim needed a coat of white paint), cleaned my car inside and out… then I left the windows rolled up because I love the way leather smells after it has been cleaned… went to the drug store… the grocery store… filled my car up with gas… wrote an article for work… I was an errand machine… and felt great… then I woke up this morning…

I must be one of those people who feels the pain from a workout two days later as opposed to the next day… so when I looked at my training program today and saw the words “6 miles easy”  - I thought this is going to be anything but EASY… the first couple of miles felt like molasses in my legs and then once I warmed up it wasn’t too bad… plus I had just downloaded some new songs to my run playlist - including - P!nk’s “Funhouse”... Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole and Hey, Soul Sister by Train just to name a few… plus I stocked up on Myoflex (muscle cream) and used a little bit of that on my right knee which felt a little tender when I got done…

Other than a little ache or pain every now and then the training is coming along and I am confident that at this point we will be able to finish the race and hopefully with do so injury free… right now a bunch of our friends along with our husband’s are going to be cheering us on in Richmond at the different mile markers and I am looking forward to a nap and a shower after the race and then a fun night out to celebrate with friends… but first of course I have to get through two more 20 mile long runs and of course the 26.2 that day :)

Link to more about the Richmond Marathon.