Hokie Half Marathon

So, September is almost over, as it turns out. Tomorrow, to be exact. And I have realized that we didn't do a recap of our biggest event in September! OMG. So here goes:

We were planning to travel up to Blacksburg, VA on the weekend of September 17 to visit our running buddy friends that moved there not too long ago to spectate the Hokie Half Marathon. Turns out, some other friends of ours got hurt/sick and couldn't run the Hokie Half Marathon that they were already signed up for. Long story short, we ended up wearing bibs that said MIKE and NICK even though our names are neither Mike nor Nick. They were able to transfer their registration to us so we were able to not only spectate, but we were able to run the half marathon!

We went into this race with very different expectations, respectively. I am in the middle of marathon training and I had (spoiler alert: unrealistically) high expectations and hopes for a personal record since I had PR'd in April. People had told us that the course was surprisingly flat (psych), so I was like "I'M GONNA GO FOR IT!" Mr. Marathon just wanted to use this as a fun training run since he is focusing on the 8K distance for his cross country season (post on his first 2 cross country meets coming soon.... clearly I'm failing at being a blogger LOL SORRY).

Race morning!

We ended up traveling on Saturday for packet pick up for the Sunday race. We arrived fairly late, picked up our packets, and met our friends for dinner. I had my usual pasta, and mister had a pizza. I was real jealous. Then we headed back to our friends' house to get some sleep because we knew that the 7:00 AM start time would come really early. It was dark and cool when we got to the starting area on Sunday morning, and the sun was just coming up as we lined up in the starting corrals. I was supposed to start with Wave 2 at 7:02 but I accidentally got swept up in the Wave 1 runners... oops.

For me, this run started out amazing. I was maintaining right at my goal pace (actually faster by about 10 seconds per mile) and I was feeling great! It was at about the mile 6 water stop that everything fell apart. And I can pinpoint the exact second that it did. I always carry my handheld water bottle. I do it so I always have access to water and I carry my inhaler in the pocket of my water bottle in the event of an asthma flare up. This means that I don't get water at water stops. I will stop and get Gatorade in the second half of a half usually, but we were still at mile 6 and I was doing just fine. This particular water stop had tables on both sides of a rather narrow trail, so I didn't really have anywhere to go if I didn't want water besides straight down the middle. So that's what I did. Except, there were 2 people who had gone off to their respective sides to get their hydration, then they both decided to merge into the middle at the exact same time, and neither of them seemed to notice me. So they sandwiched me in between themselves, pushing my shoulders in and giving me an intense pain in my chest. Yes, it hurt, but not super badly. I was still able to breathe, but I was having some pain from it. The real issue occurred when this made me emotional. I get very emotional very quickly. My emotions began to run off without me, which set off my anxiety. I began thinking tons of anxious, irrational thoughts. I'm not going to be able to keep my pace anymore. They have ruined my race. I can't breathe right anymore. My inhaler can't help this. Oh crap, now I'm going to cry. Crying makes it impossible to breathe too. And once I start crying I can't stop. AHHHHHHHHHHHH. 

Be thankful that you can't read my thoughts in this picture...
There would be a lot of censoring needed....

It also just so happens that the hills pick up in the second half. There were also several spots of gravel trail in the second half which really slowed me down. It took everything I had to keep myself calm(ish) or at least to keep myself from crying. I came close several times but I managed to maintain my composure (outwardly at least... refer to the thoughts above). I ended up finishing begrudgingly with a time of 2:16:51, which was 3 minutes off from my PR.

Mr. Marathon was running all footloose and fancy-free for the first 7 miles. He was just taking it easy like Sunday morning (oh wait it was Sunday morning...). But then, a spectator told him that he was in 39th place overall and he decided that he was going kick it. He wanted to pick his pace up since he was feeling so great, so he took off. He passed people left and right, and managed to move up about 20 places according to his calculations based on the information given to him by that spectator. Unfortunately, the spectator had apparently been wrong about his placing earlier because he ended up in 25th place rather than 19th place, which is what he was expecting. But still, he managed to finish with a time of 1:29:12, which was an awesome time that he wasn't expecting (he had told me he was aiming for an hour 45 minutes that morning)!

All in all, we had great fun with friends, we ate great food, and we ran some miles. It was a great weekend, and it was a fun way to get a long run in for my marathon training and it was an easy way for Mr. Marathon to get in a long run for his cross country training. He has had 2 meets so far this season (like I said- post coming soon.... ish) and he will have at least 2 more meets this season, possibly more. I will continue marathon training for the OUTER BANKS MARATHON (YES I HAVE DECIDED!!!!!!!) but other than that, I don't have anything major on the docket before then. So stay tuned for more ridiculously late blog posts about things that happened several weeks ago!

Hanging with the running buddies in Bburg

Swag.... and an identity crisis! All in one!

#RWrunstreak 2017 & Danville Braves 5K

Last year between Memorial Day and the 4th of July, I had completed the Runner's World Run Streak (or the #RWrunstreak), which was just a little challenge set out by Runner's World to encourage runners to run at least 1 mile every day between the two major summer holidays. This was meant to help runners keep running through the summer. It is so hard to get motivated when spring racing is over and fall training hasn't quite started. So I needed this kick in the rear to get me into gear! Last year, Mr. Marathon did not join me due to a busy schedule. This year, we both completed the 37 days in the challenge, and then some! We both have officially (as of today) made it 70 days!!!!!!!! Let's look at the mileage:

HIM: 335.5

HER: 249.65

Danville Braves 5K

Mr. Marathon also completed a 5K during his run streak. This race was on July 15 in Danville where he works and goes to school. This race was hosted in conjunction with Danville's local minor league baseball team on a Saturday morning before the Braves played that night. Mr. Marathon has been working on speed training so he was very excited to see what he was capable of at this point. He went out racing and hit the road. His biggest competition were 2 teenage guys who were leading for most of the race. He hadn't been feeling that great, so he was having a hard time breathing, which is kind of important for running. DUH. He ended up pulling away in the last mile and one of the 2 guys was still right by his side. The course finished unfortunately on an uphill, which he was thinking that would be where he would lose the race. However, the other guy apparently had the same thought. Halfway through the hill, he wanted to slow down, but just as he was thinking that, the other guy stopped because he got light-headed (Mr. Marathon looked back to make sure he was ok!), and a course volunteer went over to help him. This gave Mr. Marathon the lead and the extra motivation to kick it and finish strong. He took 1st place overall with a time of 18:50! A great time! Even better, the overall male and female winners were given the privilege of throwing the first pitch at the Danville Braves game that night! So that was a fun experience! And he got a cool bat trophy as his award. All of this, just to find out 2 days later that he had BRONCHITIS..... for the past FOUR WEEKS. 

Back to the Run Streak

This all being said, we made it past the 37 day mark, then I wanted to go further than last year (42 days), and then we decided to just keep going until the end of my summer before I start teaching again this school year. This is the end of our intentional, official #RWrunstreak. If we keep on streaking from this point on, it will be unofficial and unintentional. We made this conscious decision because today is a very important day for me. It is Day 1 of my MARATHON TRAINING PLAN! I am now IN TRAINING for a fall marathon! I am still undecided which one. I am torn between the Richmond Marathon and the Outer Banks Marathon. They are on November 11 and 12 respectively, so my 14 week training plan kicks off today regardless. 

Pictures! 

Last year, I took a picture and posted it on Instagram every single day. This year, I tried to take a picture most days, but some days I was just not feeling it. Sometimes I took a billion pictures and hated them all at the time so I didn't post them. So here you go, you can get some inside scoop, never before seen photos of my #RWrunstreak! A picture for every day!

Days 1-25

Days 26-50

Days 51-70

Rock n Roll Raleigh Marathon and Half Marathon

Last weekend we traveled south to Raleigh, NC for the Rock n Roll Raleigh Marathon (for him) and Half Marathon (for me). This has been my goal race for the past several months. I was trained up to go for a personal record (PR) since I haven't PRd a half since the Myrtle Beach Mini Marathon in 2014! I desperately wanted to beat my time of 2:19:55. For Mr. Marathon on the other hand, this was simply a training run. On his personal training plan that he designed to prepare him to run the Boston Marathon and then the Blue Ridge Marathon in the same week, his long run was 22 miles. Because I so desperately wanted to do the half, he figured why not just go ahead and go the extra mile (ok the extra 4.2 miles) and have fun at a marathon? So that's exactly what he did.

                 

We both hit up the expo, got dinner, and settled in fairly early at our hotel that was less than 5 minutes from the start line. We woke up pretty early to make it back downtown for the 7:00 AM start the next morning. It was a chilly morning, but we knew it was going to warm up to mid-50s, possibly even low 60s so we were dressed in tanks and shorts... without any throwaway gear (oops forgot to pack it!). But nevertheless we were ok! We took off, Mr. Marathon at 7:00 AM on the dot with corral 1, and me at 7:12 AM with corral 10 (even though I was supposed to be with corral 9, but apparently I was a little too far back...). We were off and we ran all around downtown Raleigh!


I really enjoyed the course for the half. It definitely had some rolling hills, which I expected, but the course had a good variety of scenery. I got to see downtown, a lovely park, NC State University's campus, and ... other ... neighborhoods (?? I was delirious at this point sorry I don't recall, but it was awesome). During the beginning of my race, I managed to maintain 9:50-10:10 minute miles for the first 6 miles, and I was shocked when I got to the halfway point. I was on target for about a 2 hour 14 minute half marathon! I was feeling good- strong and consistent. I had a couple of "off" miles, at 10:30-10:40 minutes/mile, but overall I was able to keep my pace low 10 min/mile. As I made my way back through downtown Raleigh, I was still feeling good and I was able to finish up strong with a time of 2:13:11!!!! I was so happy to finish with a 6 minute 44 second PR!

Mr. Marathon took off around downtown Raleigh with the goal of getting his last long run before the Boston Marathon. He planned on enjoying this run and having a great time while getting his miles in. He spent most of his time joking around with other runners, talking to the other runners, laughing up the hills, and oh- of course running too. His boss was running the full marathon as well and caught up to him at mile 7, and they ran together until mile 18. Mr. Marathon was planning to slow down his pace, but having someone else running with him just made him stay at a steady pace. There were plenty of rolling hills along the course from beginning to end, which made it a little challenging to maintain a steady pace throughout. After mile 18, he was running solo again, but still in good spirits and joking with everyone around him, except the runners around him that were NOT in the mood for his shenanigans at this point in the race. It takes a very special kind of person to tolerate being around him at this point, believe me! Humor in the last part of a marathon is not always well received. And by no means does this mean that he is not putting in effort, but him cracking jokes and using his sense of humor was just his way of staying motivated and positive. At mile 19, something else happened that helped him stay motivated and positive. At a water stop, there were volunteers giving out Hawaiian leis, and they were in competition with each other to see who could give the most leis out. So Mr. Marathon decided to help them out. They were offering him one, but he decided to take all of the leis... from 2 different people! As they laughed, that was the seal of approval and the little bit of extra gas in the tank to get him to the finish line. People from then on were very confused. How is he running with all of those leis????? Regardless of how many leis he had on, he finished feeling pretty good in a time of 3:10:38! And of course he looked good doing it!

Here's a little game- guess how many leis he's wearing!
If you guess correctly you'll win a chance to run with Mr. Marathon!

We really enjoyed our time in Raleigh, and now we are looking ahead at what is coming up. Boston is in just 9 short days, and the Blue Ridge Marathon (for him) and Half Marathon (for her) is in 14 days. Can't wait! Until then, here's some more pictures of our race weekend!

Fun at the expo!

I'm kind of obsessed with this picture.
I was telling everyone I HIT A 6 MINUTE PR!!!!!!

Finishing strong with all those leis on

Cheesin

With his awesome boss!

Aw aren't we cute?!

They wouldn't let me back into the finisher's area...
so this is how we had to have our picture taken.

Post race posin'!

2016 Year in Review / 2017 Preview

Last year, we had a fun time reminiscing about our 2015 and making our plans for 2016 around this time. So we decided to do it again!

2016 was a tough year for plenty of people, that's no secret. It seems like there are infinite memes on the Facebook about how much 2016 sucked.

Since we are fans of MMA...
Mr. Marathon's brother is an MMA fighter!

For all the fans of Grey's, Scandal, etc. HAH!

But for us, we actually had a pretty decent year. Let's review, shall we??

Just a collage of some of our fun run-ventures of 2016!

In the winter, we traveled to Charleston in January for the Charleston Marathon (and both hit personal records!), he ran 105 miles in one week for the the What's Your Wall? challenge again, he nailed the rail and I ran it, and we got to do the Martinsville Half Marathon again. Then in spring, participated in the Blue Ridge Marathon & Star K 10K then hopped a plane to BOSTON! Then we had a really busy month of May! In the summer, I did the Runner's World Summer Run Streak (and then some!) and we got to do a new 4th of July race! Fall rolled around and he did some running and Spartan-ing, and I did some running. In November, we did our second marathon of the year and I achieved my marathon goal (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), I got pneumonia that sidelined me for several weeks, and he completed his second 24-hour ultramarathon! My pneumonia also derailed my 100+ miles a month goal, but I made it November 2015-October 2016 (12 consecutive months) before I had to cut back in November and December due to doctor's orders.

Here are my monthly totals during my 100+ mile/month streak!

And now for our total running mileage from this calendar year:
HIS: 1,762.56 total miles in 2016

Hubby's "Best Nine" (most liked) pictures from Instagram in 2016

HERS: 1,122.68 total miles in 2016

My "Best Nine" from Instagram

PHEW! I'm exhausted just recapping all of this! As this year comes to a close, we realize just how much we have accomplished this year, in running as well as other aspects of our lives. Mr. Marathon is halfway through his Bachelor's degree, and I got a job teaching at a new school this past August!

We are so proud of all that we have done in 2016! In 2017, we have a few plans already in place. We will be traveling back to Boston for mister to run the Boston Marathon (4/17/17) again, and he plans to do the Blue Ridge Marathon (4/22/17). We also have plans to stay active, have fun, run a lot, exercise as much as we can, and take on other challenges/races as they come.

We wish you all a very happy new year and many happy miles in 2017!

#RWrunstreak & 4 on the 4th

Those of you following me on Facebook or Instagram may have noticed I have been posting a lot more than usual lately! But I have a good reason, I promise. 6 weeks ago, I (accidentally) started a run streak on Memorial Day. A little over a week later, I saw a post from Runner's World on Instagram about the Summer Run Streak. The streak consisted of running or walking at least 1 mile each day from Memorial Day through the 4th of July. It started by accident, like I said, but I realized that I was already 9 (out of 36) days in. So I was like "Hey, I can keep this up for 27 more days, no problem!" This was only semi-true. I could keep it up, and I did, but it was challenging! There are people out there who keep up run streaks for a full year (and more!!!!) and I had a hard time keeping up for 36 days. I definitely appreciated the challenge (and managed to keep up with my other goal of 100 miles a month) and made it through. You never really realize how busy you are some days, until you have that mile looming in the back of your mind that you still have to do. I had several days where I got to the end of the day and thought to myself, OOPS I STILL GOTTA DO MY MILE!!!! And then that's literally all I had in me-- one mile. Anyway, it was fun and a new challenge. I had so much fun for the first 36 days that I continued on my streak for 42 days to round it out to an even 6 weeks! 42 days, 44 runs, and 145 miles later, I am very glad to be done!!!


I did an Instagram/Facebook post for each day of the run streak so I have have put together collages for each week for you to enjoy! (I didn't have pictures for the first 9 days... but I found pictures for them!) If these pictures are too hard to see or you want to see the posts that go along with each, check out the posts on my Instagram!

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

We also did a race on the last official day of the Run Streak! Mr. Marathon and I got to travel north to Roanoke, VA for the 4 on the 4th! It was such a fun 4 miler. We got to do a practice run with local running group C&C Runners two days before the race. It was a little hillier than the 4th of July 4 miler we had done previously in Charlotte (in 2014 and 2015), but for being in Roanoke, it was not bad at all hill-wise. We felt good on race day, but we didn't expect any personal records... but lo and behold we got 'em! Mr. Marathon finished with a time of 24:28, which put him in 2nd place in his age group, 9th place overall! I finished with a time of 37:24, which is a huge PR for me from last year's time of 42:16!!! And I came in 9th place out of 36 in my age group... Usually I tend to fall closer to the other end of my age group, so I was excited to see that. All my speed work finally paid off I guess! We were both happy to see PRs, and we hope to continue to train and see such awesome improvements. 

We aren't signed up for anything else for now, but there's a few local races and possibly a couple of Spartans (for him, not me, duh!) and we're looking at a couple of big race options for fall...!

What's Your Wall? 4

As many of you loyal readers may recall, last year we both participated in a 7 day endurance challenge. I ran 6.2 miles each day for 7 days, and he ran 15 miles a day each day for 7 days. (Read about it here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here!)

Anyway, this year, The Brick Running and Tri Store put on this challenge again! Last year, we used this as marathon training since it was the month before the Ft. Lauderdale Marathon. However, this year, it came after our marathon. Since I just came out of my training cycle, I figured I needed a break so I wouldn't become burned out. Of course, that didn't stop Mr. Marathon. He decided to tackle the What's Your Wall? challenge again this year. And since last year he completed the 15 mile distance, he had to do that again! Because that makes sense!

(the rest of this post is told from Mr. Marathon's perspective)

Each day I allotted 2 hours and 15 minutes (plus time to change and all that good stuff) for each day's run. My Monday/Wednesday/Friday class schedule was pretty tight, so I literally had 3 hours to change, run, swim, change, and eat lunch. On Tuesday and Thursday I was even more pressed for time because I only had 2 hours and 15 minutes in between classes. That meant I had to skip lunch those days and grab it after my 1:00 class, and then I got my swim in after that, then be ready to go into work at 3:00. Now, let me explain the swimming. Swimming was not part of the challenge, but I decided that in addition to my 15 miles a day, I wanted to find a way to keep my muscles loosey goosey and relaxed, and what better way to do that than to swim an easy 500 meters? I did my swim every day except Sunday (Day 7).  Anyway, this post is intended to give you the RUNdown (lol) of each day. So buckle up and away we go!

Day 1: MONDAY

After my morning classes ended at 12:00, the clock was ticking until my afternoon class. I had 3 hours to complete today's run and swim. So I headed on down to the Danville YMCA, got changed, and was out on the trail by 12:15. Now, I don't know exactly how long the Riverwalk Trail is, so I just headed out the way I knew first. It was a 4 mile loop one way, so I had to do an 11 mile loop the other way. And it turns out that it was niiiiiice and hilly!!! Yay!  But who doesn't like a challenge on top of a challenge???? (don't answer that) Oh, and by the way, the temperature was 70 degrees! So it was HOT! And by the time I was coming in to finish my run, I realized that I had been sweating and I was not taking in enough fluids, since my body was not used to that temperature anymore. I felt a little light headed, and my legs felt as if they were swollen and very tingly. But I swam it out after my run and felt a little better. So moving right along to....

Day 1 Elevation (green) and Pace (blue)

Day 2: TUESDAY

Tuesday's run was a little more stressful due to my time constraint: having exactly 2 hours and 15 minutes between classes meant I had no choice but to run from the school parking lot to the Riverwalk, but hey that gave me 3 miles there and 3 miles back, so I knew I would have 6 miles not even counting the trail, so all I had left to do on the Riverwalk was 9 miles! It was a nice downhill for the first 3 miles from the school to the Riverwalk.... However, this meant that I was going to have those same 3 miles uphill to the finish. And I was not excited. But as I ran, I said "Eh, future me can deal with that..." and kept on going. Fortunately for me I had a Honey Stinger gel with me (didn't have one on Monday) and took it at mile 10 when I was very tired and feeling drained, and by mile 12.5, I started running, yes, running up the hill and as I kept running, I felt weird because I was supposed to be walking, tired, defeated, out of juice, but instead, I had a great stride going up the hill and I felt strong all the way to the finish! And it was a good thing, because I had to get my bookbag out of my car and go straight into class. No time to stretch, no time to eat! (I did get time to hydrate though, learned by lesson from Day 1) After class, I ate lunch and headed over the Y to do my swimming. That's a wrap on Tuesday now....

Day 2 Elevation (green) and Pace (blue)

Day 3: WEDNESDAY

My flight instructor at school had scheduled another student during my scheduled time with him on Wednesday, so that meant I had all morning off until class at 3:00! Plenty of time to run! I had no worries, I just checked the temperature, got dressed, and headed out... and headed back inside the house to get a rain jacket, then headed back out. Womp womp, lots of rain. I figured I could do Wednesday's run on the Martinsville Half Marathon course (plus some obviously... I CAN MATH) since I got to run at home instead of in Danville since I didn't have class. So I headed over to the Martinsville Y to start my run there. It seemed to be just a little sprinkle coming down. I stepped into the Y to get myself ready to run, and when I stepped back out, it was POURING rain!!! And to top it off, we were under a severe weather warning as well as a flood warning! I had no choice but to do what I do. So I did. Another hilly course, but I knew what I was getting myself into with that. And to top it off, I got 15 miles FULL of HYDRATION! Hydration from the sky, that is. Yay? As cars were flying past me, I'm sure they had to think to themselves "What an idiot... does he not know it's raining?????" But I will be honest, that run was one of the best runs I had all week, simply because not many people would have been out otherwise, and I got to thinking about all the other participants in the What's Your Wall challenge and felt kind of proud of everybody. So I just took a bad situation and tried to turn it into a good situation. Fast forward, I had a great run, swam afterwards, and I headed to class on my merry way. NEXT!

Day 3 Elevation (green) and Pace (blue)

Day 4: THURSDAY

Thursday's run was the same course as Tuesday, with just a few additional challenges. Remember the rain from Day 3? Well, that completely flooded some parts of the Riverwalk! So during my run, I tried to avoid the flooding by jumping, prancing, inching, sliding, shuffling and even climbing over a fence! Yes, I climbed over a fence during my run. No, I did not get any kind of extra credit for it! But then, it occurred to me that I got very muddy trying to avoid the flood, so I sucked it up and ran through the flooded areas on the way back after the turnaround. So I ended up running through knee-high water that was pretty freezing cold and nasty and muddy! But whatever. Then after my swim, wait, I mean my run. Yeah that was just my run. Anyway I got my bookbag and went to class. As I was sitting in class, I was like "Man, my left shoe got really muddy! But it's like really red mud, not like normal mud color..." So when I went to do my INTENTIONAL swim, I took my shoe off and as it turns out it wasn't mud that had stained my shoe... it was blood. No big deal, I had no time to worry about that. I still had 3 more days to go! Moving on!

Day 4 Elevation (green) and Pace (blue)

Day 5: FRIDAY

Friday was similar to Monday, the only difference was that I was not looking at my watch. I didn't want to put any more stress on my body than I had to. Each day, I had unintentionally started the first hour of my runs at an easier pace to warm up. Then after that, typically around mile 7, I would begin to find my stride. Friday was no exception. I started easy, then fell into a rhythm, and finished feeling ok. And I got my swim in afterwards, and I was ready for the next day!

Day 5 Elevation (green) and Pace (blue)

Day 6: SATURDAY

This was work day. I was scheduled to work at 10:00 Saturday morning. This meant I could use my whole afternoon/evening to run after I got off. However, would I have done that? Don't know, and I didn't want to find out. All I knew was that I didn't want that run nagging at me all morning and most of the afternoon at work. So I got up at 5:30, left the house at 6:00, and arrived at the Danville Y at 7:00 (for those of you who don't know I work an hour away in Danville as well as go to school there). I took off on the Riverwalk and headed towards Main St through Downtown Danville and just kept running until my watch said 7.5 miles, then I turned around and did the exact same 7.5 back. I got to the Danville Y at 9:00, got my swim in, showered, and headed on to work. Without my run nagging at me! I must say, that was a great feeling! But not as great as....

Day 6 Elevation (green) and Pace (blue)

DAY 7: SUNDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunday was a great day for most of America. Not because of some football game, but because it was the last day of the What's Your Wall challenge! A few friends of mine were going for a long run on Sunday morning and extended the invite. And so I took them up on the offer and met with them at 7:00 am and ran the Dick and Willie Trail. They were going to run an hour and forty-five minutes, which gave us about 11 miles by the time they finished. The last 4, I was going to knock out by myself. However, I had great motivation because Sunday runs are BREAKFAST RUNS with our normal running buddies. So I knew at the end of today's run, there would be a joyous feast awaiting me. And by joyous feast, I mean BISCUITS!!!!!! So I finished successfully (with the motivation of biscuits of course) and the rest is history!
FYI- History is very hard to download from your watch. Especially when you haven't downloaded said history in over a year.... 

Enjoying my joyous feast! ALL THE BISCUITS!!!!!
IT WAS BO TIME!

Day 7 Elevation (green) and Pace (blue)

Day 8: THE AFTERMATH 

So, after 7 days, 105 miles, some blood, sweat, a few blisters, and a questionable-looking pinky toe, (I'll spare you the gory details...) I got to take today off! And I get to hop back onto my marathon training plan tomorrow! Woohoo! Man, this day feels like a whole week off! I'm rested and ready to get back at it! I think!