Day 9

Weight: unknown
Daily distance: 3 miles
Weekly distance: 3 miles
Training distance: 32 miles
Pace: 10:34
Time/Temperature: 10:00 am, 50 degrees, hard rain.

We looked at the weather today and saw that it would be raining all day. So I took the opportunity to get out in it. I hope that it will be in the high 60's, low wind and full of sunshine on race day but often that is not how it goes. I honestly don't mind running in the rain. It feels very refreshing at times.  When I run in the rain I use a lot of imagery of things just being washed away and left on the pavement behind. I try to focus on all the various sizes of raindrops that hit me in the face and roll down out of my hair. When the temperature outside is right, it feels so cool to have your skin be hot and have cool raindrops on it. It is runs like today that also remind me that non runners are missing out.

Today I was incredibly sore from yesterday. The workout I did yesterday had a lot of lunges and squats and it felt like I was running on lead poles. I didn't feel like I even got warmed up the entire run.

I am currently reading the book Marathon by Hal Higdon.  Last night I read about the history of the marathon. I also read about how most runners hit a wall around mile 20 because we run out of our glycemic store at which time we have to start burning fat which is not as good of an energy source. That was really interesting to me. I knew something like that happened the last time I ran 20 miles. I went out on that run unprepared. I ate my jellies and drank my gatorade all by mile 15. Luckily, there was a gas station where I was running and was able to stop in for a banana and another gatorade. For me during that training run I immediately hit that wall right around mile 15. My skin started to tingle and I started to feel faint. Thank goodness there will be refreshments stops regularly during the marathon.