Sunday, December 28, 2008

2 weeks from today!

2 weeks from today, I'll have completed the Disney marathon! I can hardly believe how fast the time has flown. It's been a crazy year. Christmas has come and gone already. It was a very good Christmas-- we went up to Georgia to spend it with the family this year. Perhaps that wasn't our smartest idea, since we had just been up there 3 weeks before for Thanksgiving, but it turned out to be a great trip. We spent the first half of the week with my family, and the second half with Adam's. We even got to go out on a real date with our friends Rich and Tracy, and got to have both dinner and a movie without it costing us $30 in babysitting money! Ah, the perks of grandmothers.

I realized I forgot to blog about my 20 mile run. All that buildup and I don't even talk about it. Whoops! Well, it's over, I can say that about it. Actually, it wasn't that bad, though it was pretty darn warm that morning and it really made me worry about how hard the marathon will be if it's that warm on the 11th. We've been lucky in that it's been pretty cool most of our long runs; in fact, the previous week, I wore a warm up jacket and long pants for the entire run. It was in the 70's for most of the 20 mile run, which isn't bad if you're outside just hanging out but sucks when you're working out that much, plus there was NO shade along our route. We finished in 3:23, which was remarkable time, just over 10 minute miles. If we were to continue on that pace for the marathon we would finish in about 4 and a half hours, which I'd be thrilled with. That last six miles will be tough though. Pretty much once you get beyond 20 miles, it's all mental. there's not a whole lot you can do to prepare your body for that kind of stress.

I feel really confident going into this last two weeks. We are tapering down now in mileage to prepare for the big day, so I'm going to be focusing on cross training and strength building until then. I'm beginning to be able to imagine myself and Erin crossing the finish line and getting the coveted medal. It's been an incredible journey of training, and in some ways I'm sorry to see it end, but it will be nice not to spend every Saturday morning running for hours at a time.

let's hope for COOL WEATHER two weeks from today!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Run Chantel Run!!! Congrats on the 20 mile run!

I am praying for 65 and partly sunny weather in Disney that morning, with a high going up to 80 in that afternoon, so Adam can take Anthony to the pool while you nap!

Chiara