Picture from the Autumn Chase Run (free one mile races for elementary kids). Our team paces these races each year.
Today was my last 20 miler in this marathon training cycle. It went very well (best of the 3 I've done--8:40ish pace and was aiming for 9:00s) and yesterday's 10 mile pace run did also. I will be running in the Soldier Marathon in 3 weeks. Starting at 3:30 a.m. is really not fun but I kept telling myself that I get to reap the benefits when it's over. And no more long runs now!
I used today's run to think about a big test I will take tomorrow for elementary teaching (reinstating my certificate). I broke the run into 4 5-mile segments and kind of "pep talked" myself for each of the four segments of the test (English, Math, Science, Social Studies). It gave me something to do and reminded me that visualization is good for testing but especially for marathoning. Now I plan to do the same thing to get myself ready for the marathon. I'll picture myself being successful race day, go back and reread previous blog entries, and remind myself of all of the training I've done to get here. Back to some last minute studying now!
