An 18 mile warm-up for a 5K....

I thought about doing a before and after post. Before being last night, after being this afternoon. But I couldn't do it. I was nervous about today's run. Too nervous for a before post. Here's what it would have resembled.

I have a 21 mile run tomorrow. I've been thinking about it all week. I haven't had a successful long run for this marathon yet and tomorrow is the longest long run before the marathon. Gag this run down and then it's taper crazies... please let this run go well, or ok... just let it be ok.

The plan was to start at 6am, get in 18 miles and the stumble through a local 5K. This 5K has special meaning to me. It was the first 5K I ever ran back in 2007. And besides, what a great way to end a 21 mile run? A finish line!

Thankfully a dear friend joined me for the first 6 miles. She kept me at a great pace and we ran til just about sunrise. I felt good continuing on to the local rail trail and I hit it right after sunrise. It was then that I notice Fall had come! What? The leaves are changing color and the air was cool. Things were going well. All in all I'd say about 15 of the first 18 went well. Those other three sucked bad. But I had a deer pop his head out of some trees, see me and then skittered away. It was kind of like a cartoon.

I got back to the stadium to meet my friends for the 5k. That's right, I still had a 5k to run. Problem number one was that we stopped moving for awhile and then had to move again. Oh my OW! We started the race moaning and groaning like zombies. Great.... The best thing about this 5K is that they have orange slices at mile 2. Orange slices are silly for a 5k, but for your 20th mile... they are filled with magical rainbows and unicorns!

 

Finished the run, ate delicious food with my friends, drank a gallon of coffee, ice bath, and a mostly successful long run! Yeah! I'm breathing a sigh of relief. I needed that decent run to believe I could even get through this race. Done. Now on to the taper crazies... here we go!!!