#11 taper time and running celebs

Sunday night, Adam and I attended a gorgeous wedding at a winery the North Georgia mountains. The ceremony was romantic, the food was ah-mazing, and the wine was flowing.

I grabbed the first photo off the website as A) I don't have a helicopter and B) it was quite cloudy as you can see from the second photo. Plus, we were all dressed up so we didn't get a chance to go meandering through the vineyards.

I definitely enjoyed my fair share of wine (duh) and so my wake-up-early-to-run-before-work alarm was really over as I was setting it the night before. Thus, the Monday morning run got moved to Monday night and I was faced with October darkness since I was closing the store.

To the treadmill I went.... I ran 3.5 miles. Was just going to do 3 because we still hadn't eaten dinner and it was nearing 9pm. But I was feeling so good that I didn't want to stop. So I compromised with just a teeny bit more...

Then I finally decided to pony up the cash for Marshall. Marathon #11 could be quite memorable if a certain dude BQs. (And a selfish side note--if I'm there to witness it!)

Tuesday, I decided to do mile repeats. 1 mile warm-up, 6:49, 400 recovery, 6:40, 800 recovery, & 6:27 with a 1200 cool down. Awwwwww yeah!!!!

I rested Wednesday and Thursday. Spent quality time with Adam and the puppies.

Today, I went out for my final long run of this mini-cycle. I was feeling dead-legged until....wait for it....mile 18. Who the eff gets their mojo kick at mile 18?!?! The rest of the run wasn't awful, but it wasn't great either. Truth be told, I kind of like having a not-so-great feeling last long run before the race. It gives me hope for race day.

I'm happy to see my splits so fairly consistent and even with the few pit/water/traffic stops, my total time was only 7 minutes more than running time. I'd be completely bananas to not be happy with all sub-8 splits on a 21.5 mile training run when my marathon PR pace is a 8:08. But I still have self-doubt--it's a terrible side effect of being human.

But regardless of the outcome, I'll still be me on November 3rd and headed for the next adventure!

This evening, I headed over to a local running store, Totally Running, to meet 1972 Olympic Marathon gold medalist Frank Shorter. I'm kind of a history nut (random side note: it was my minor in college) and love soaking up the running stories of the past. This a really cool opportunity to meet a little slice of running history in my backyard.

Admittedly, I actually got a little tongue-tied and couldn't think of something awesome to say (shocker!). So I stood there for a few extra minutes and listened to him talk to a few other people that were there getting autographs. Derp. But at least I got a cool memento and a stalkerish pic to commemorate the occasion.

Now, it's time to whine about tapering for 2 weeks. Wahoo!!!!