FINALLY

I was so overdue for a good run it was ridiculous, but it FINALLY happened. I ran 10 miles today with my friend Jackie (and our running group) and it was fabulous. Our average pace was 9:59, which is awesome for several reasons. 

1. We talked literally the entire time.

2. It was a hilly run.

3. We weren't trying to push ourselves and the pace felt easy for the whole run.

I had no desire to stop at 10, I wanted to keep going with Jackie, who was running 15 (her marathon is a week after mine). Actually I felt like I could keep going all day. But with my marathon 8 days away, I needed to save my legs!

These are my wonderful running buddies, all cleaned up and presentable. From left to right is Lily, me, Mike, and Jackie. Lily and Mike ditched us this morning :(. 

I posted that picture on facebook and another running friend commented that she didn't recognize us without our camelbaks and headlamps. I guess she's used to seeing me like this.



You would think I'd be calmer this time around, but I'm started to get super stressed. Thanks to this morning's great run, I feel a lot more confident (but still terrified!) about running 26.2 miles. I'm getting stressed about all the little details that have to be planned along with actually preparing for the run. This time there are more, because we'll be going out of town. We spent an inordinate amount of time on our run this morning discussing our own deep personal debates over hydration, fuel, outfits, etc for our marathons. I act as though my life depends on these decisions. One wrong move and I could spend a LOT of miles being miserable. I am going to post my plan once I nail down all the details. I know I lie a lot when I say I am going to post things but this has at least an 80% chance of happening.

Turns out my marathon coach ran Shamrock as her first marathon and used to live in Virginia Beach, so I chatted with her after the run, and she gave me some good advice. I picked up some last minute supplies. This marathon is providing some type of Gu I have never heard of. The number one rule that everyone tells you about preparing for a marathon is DO NOT DO ANYTHING NEW. Don't try a new food, a new workout, a new drink, item of clothing, ANYTHING the week before the race. I take this rule very seriously. Here's my Gus for the race.

And my pre-race hydration - they didn't have my flavor in the big pack, and I haven't  tried the other brand that was available before, so following the rule, I got some individuals. These are tablets that you drop into water and they fizz like alkaseltzer. They have electrolytes or something that helps you run. All I know is I drank a ton before my last marathon and liked it, so game on, Nuun.

Right before I left for our run, I tried to switch my road ID to my new shoes (another pre-race preparation!). 

 

I guess I was still asleep because the little metal thingie that actually has all my emergency info popped off and I could not find it ANYWHERE before I left.

 

This is the thingie I'm talking about. I flipped it over because I didn't think my family would appreciate having their phone numbers displayed on such a high traffic website. I finally found it in my old shoe when I got home.

That was a random story but I was really scared it was lost forever, and somehow that would ruin my marathon, which makes total sense, because I won't be wearing a bib with all my info surrounded by people and have medical personnel available or anything.

More random stuff - while I was eating my almond butter toast before my run I was perusing Crystal's blog and saw this:

 

There is an ON right by the running store, so I stopped on my way home, and got 3 dresses, a cute sweater, and a tank top for $35! I also scored a free sample of cereal! My name is Alyssa and I have an addiction to discount shopping.

I also picked up my packet for a 5K I am running tomorrow. I must have had too much on my mind because I thought they didn't have a packet for me when I couldn't find my name. I was looking for my maiden name. I'll be celebrating my 3 year anniversary this July. WOW. 

It was supposed to be just a fun race, but all my friends got closed out when it filled up early. I'll really have to make sure to hold back, I wish I could go all out but not a week before a marathon!