Hitting the Peak

Saturday was our last long run, unless you count the actual 26.2 miles, which I don't like to think about. The novelty has all but worn off, and I really could have stayed on the couch. But, Coach gave me the side eye, so we got ready to head out the door. At a glacial pace.
At some point last week, all 4 of my brain cells started working at the same time, and it occurred to me to look up the marathon on facebook. Found all kinds of helpful information I had looked everywhere for- (well, clearly not everywhere) like the flavors of Gu provided on the course. This may seem trivial, until you try something new on race day and are actually wanting to find a port a potty. Everything must be the same. Don't change anything.

I breathed a sigh of relief when, for the most part, they were the same flavors we had been using.

That's about as far as my brain took me this week, since the following happened Friday:

1.chips and cheese dip

2.draft beer

3.mapping a run starting at a wine bar

We'll call this run 20 miles -glutton for punishment edition.
Things weren't too bad the first half of the run. The scenery was unreal, as was the real estate. I would have snapped some pictures to share, but I thought taking pictures of people's houses I don't know is probably borderline creepy.

A little torture at mile 12.
Saw this bat at our second gatorade stop. I remembered from somewhere someone using a champagne bottle as a foam roller, so I thought, why not a plastic bat? Felt nice on the quads.
Things turned dark (literally and figuratively) around mile 15-16. I went from taking it 3 miles a time to 2, and then towards the end, even the tenths of miles seem to be taking AGES. I thought my watch was broken the numbers were turning over so slow. It was our longest run, it was our slowest run - but we finished.

In the spirit of the glass half full, I was a little glad to have at least one rough run, and still make it through. Most of our long runs to date were so smooth, I think looking back on a hard run will provide a mental boost at some point in the marathon. Which is a mere 18 days away. Time to taper...