lovely, 8 miles

This week I ran eight miles in Seattle. It was lovely and easy (and flat on the Burke-Gilman trail!). Bob and I ran the first three miles together and then he turned around cause his schedule was to run 5 miles on Saturday--mine was to run 8.

I did get a massage this week and that's made me feel a million times better, stronger and pain-free. I think running a flat course helped to not un-do that progress.

I ran in Seattle cause then Bob and I drove over to the Sasquatch music festival at the Gorge. Everything was beautiful and fun until we got caught in a hailstorm like I've never seen during Neko Case's set. Luckily, we had a change of clothes in the car and were able to stick around when the music finally started up again. But we took it easy and left after the Shins. We refuse to get sick before the big day!

I am really good at running 12 miles

Seriously, I am. And I can say things like, "I'm just running 12 miles this week" and mean it. To be honest I was sore and tired at the start of Saturday's run. But that actually made me run more aggressively cause I was worried that if I didn't, I wouldn't make it at all. Isn't that messed up?

I can't believe it's less than two weeks from now that Bob, Pete and I (along with friends and family) will trek down to San Diego. For now I'm going to just try and stay healthy. May even treat myself to a massage (it really helped a few weeks ago) to help some pain in my hips and back.

20 miles - enough said

But still curious? 20 miles was tackled yesterday. It's the longest training run we'll do. The next big run is three weeks from today. From now on we're tapering our long runs to recover and rest our bodies. "Yes please," says mine.

It was a good run. Back in the hills of Pt. Defiance, I reminded myself that it was good training to run lots of hills (San Diego won't have much in hills) in warm weather (San Diego probably will have that). In three weeks we can add thousands of cheering spectators, 40 cheerleading squads and bands playing every mile. Basically it's going to be a huge party -- just one where you have to work really really hard for the beer at the end (we had beer at the end of the 20 mile run yesterday to simulate actual "race conditions"). Beer.......

This week we also had a "marathon tips" clinic to talk about what to do in the days leading up to June 4th and how to take care of yourself afterwards. I've been getting excited about race day but this made it feel even more real.

Bring it ON!!