18 miles!

Today's run was a little different, we started at 5:30am so it was very cold and very dark. Neither factors were really an issue, I had plenty of layers and a warm and fuzzy North Face skull cap that helped cover my ears. The challenge was not seeing the Garmin for the first 10 miles. It was a real test of my dependence on it as well as how well the training has paid off that I could listen to my body and know what pace I am running.

The goal was to keep the splits in the 12's (no faster than 12 and no slower than 13). As the day appeared and we were able to see the Garmin's readout we decided we will try and pick it up during the last "10k". It's something we have been discussing about the marathon, when we get to mile 20 it'll just be another 10k and we will approach that as a race all in itself. So, when we got to mile 12 today we tried, and although the splits weren't exactly mega fast we certainly had gas left in the tank during mile 18 because it turned out to be the fastest split!

Overall I felt it was a challenging run, I was reminded of something I read recently, that distance runners have a high tolerance for boredom. I found that it was a mental struggle at times because I really wanted to be at home in a warm bed haha. But, physically I felt great and I reminded myself to be grateful for that and enjoy this journey. There aren't many long runs left then the FULL marathon and it will be over. Because, if I haven't said it before, this will be my first and last marathon. So, no more running over 13.1 miles after Dec 11th. I'm trying to enjoy this crazy distance while I'm doing it.

Mile 1: 12:44
Mile 2: 12:37
Mile 3: 12:33
Mile 4: 12:24
Mile 5: 12:28
Mile 6: 12:16
Mile 7: 12:34
Mile 8: 12:29
Mile 9: 12:26
Mile 10: 12:23
Mile 11: 12:17
Mile 12: 12:21
Mile 13: 12:12
Mile 14: 12:20
Mile 15: 12:06
Mile 16: 12:18
Mile 17: 12:09
Mile 18: 11:42

Total Time: 3:42:19
Avg. Mile: 12:21