I Delivered: 20 miles
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| Happy Father's Day! |
This week's long run was unfortunately preceded by a freak out of epic porportions. My plan was to get up at 6 am and leave for my run at 7 which is the start time of the marathon. Then I would get a taste of how hot and sunny it is at that time. One of the big mistakes I made in training before my last marathon was to do all my runs at 5:00 in the morning and then when race day came, I wasn't ready to run in the heat of 8 am. So before this run, I ate some food and drank water and was all ready to leave at 7 when...I couldn't find my ipod. I had the headphones but no ipod. Shoot! I looked all around and couldn't find it and I didn't want to run for 3 hours without any music. Then I became convinced that I had flushed it down the toilet and it was gone forever. Then I started crying and screaming that I can't run this far, I can't do the marathon, etc etc. It was not pretty. The children started to look scared and whisper, What's wrong with Mommy? But Matt was a good sport and dutifully plunged the toilet while muttering I really don't think it's in here. Meanwhile I kept looking and I found it in the back of the shoe cabinet. Who knows how it got there. So I wiped my tears, took a deep breath, and set out on my run.
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| Pre meltdown |
I had decided to do my usual half marathon loop and then add on some miles by going out to the airport. It was a gorgeous day here in Brasilia, really sunny but not too hot. There was excitement in the air because the first game of the Confederations Cup soccer tournament was being played later in the day here in Brasilia-Brazil vs. Japan! So there were lots of police driving around and I even saw a police boat patrolling out on the lake. Going later in the morning meant that there were a ton of runners out getting their miles in. I even saw my Brazilian doppleganger-a woman ran towards me wearing a visor, sunglasses, and hot pink compression socks! I gave her a thumbs up, she looked great!
This was my first time running with my sunglasses on and I was glad that I had them. I felt like not squinting at the sun helped me relax my face and feel less lost. I've had a couple mornings where the sun was shining right in my eyes and I felt like I was running blind. As I was running out towards the airport, Matt and the kids finally found me and gave me some much needed cold water and Gatorade and oranges. After I saw them, I still had 7 miles to go so it was a good boost.
The rest of the run went well until I was about a mile from home and I ran into a giant smoke cloud. It turned out they were doing road work and kicking up lots of toxic smelling dust. Not a great way to finish but I just kept going and tried to finish strong. And that's it! My last long run of marathon training is in the books. I just have one more hard workout-ten 800s on Wednesday and then the taper begins! 3 weeks to go until the marathon!
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| Next stop Rio! |
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| It's important to stop and smell the roses after a long run |
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