21.5 miles!

Sunday mornimg marked the day that I did not have to cancel my trip to the marathon next weekend! Mothers' day marked another personal best for us both, 21.5 miles! I'm really excited about that, 18.5 has been our longest until this. Now I feel..... ready is not the word, ....... oh well, here I come, my first ever marathon! This week I'm trying to remember that taper is good. Did 3(recovery run?) miles monday, another 3 miles this morning (tempo?run), hoping for 5 friday with a 10-15 on sunday.


So let me tell you about this awesome jouney of another Sunday long run.......

Above you see G, she is carrying a dogwood tree. Along our trail we saw this tree, only about 3 feet tall, lying on the path tipped (dumped) from its' pot. We couldn't just let it lay there, so we picked it up and G took it up towards the road where hopefully its' rightful' owner will find it again. It saddens me that someone was bored enough to take a plant from somewhere (probably not one of there own) and toss it away without a second thought.

Shortly after this distration we are rewarded with the awesome sight of the meeting of a beaver and a goose. As the beaver is heading towards the goose and its mate, the goose gets itself between its mate and the oncoming beaver and slowly approaches the beaver where the beaver then turns to head off in another direction. It was such a neat scene; to see nature at work in such a pleasant confrontation was incredible.


We are only about 2 miles up the road and decide to concentrate a bit harder as we only have 5ish hours to accomplish this run. But in another 2 miles I must add another sunrise to our collection.
And from here on we don't stop for a while as we do get into putting on the milage. After the first hour as well as the second we slowed enough to enjoy some 'long run rounds' that G brings along for energy, thanks G. Then I bring out the protien bars later.... as we try to keep it to every hour or so. Keeping hydrated along the way has helped with the platypus. I have really enjoyed NOT having to carry water bottles and having to fuss with them.
Although now I do see that for my first and probably second marathon I will want to carry my back pack along route. I remember during the first few half's that I did really rely on the water belt and always having my water bottle available. It was a comfort to me to know that it was there, I see this happening in the marathon for now. It feels funny now to think back to last year, May, where I ran with a gentleman who told me that he didn't need to carry water and it wasn't warm enough for him to bother with the water stations that day. I thought he was a bit crazy at the time, but now I can understand where he is coming from. I can go much further in the cooler weather without the need of water than in the warm, and I can just get a bit further before I reach for my water. But for now I will still be running with my back pack next weekend, and my platypus will be filled; I think I will have to beg G for some of her run cookies to take with me also.

We are on our way to stonewall. We have both looked at maps before we left for our run, we know we need to turn here................................>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
and this we do successfully.
But that is where we temporarily get lost^^^^^.........

So we decide to turn around and head back home. We are only about 14 miles out from our start and 4-5 of those miles were still in the city, we should be able to get a 20 miler in even if we head back?! And, of course we did. This is G at the 19 mile mark, as she has gotten into her awesome 'mode' of running...

Have a fantastic week everyone.
Nicole