Marathon Ready - One Night Only

Tonight's Wednesday night's speed training ended early for me....nothing bad happened, my coach just ended it earlier. We were doing half mile repeats along the lakeshore, and I made the turn like the previous three times - in my routine and plugging along. I was last as usual, but in my head and just kept the natural assumption that we would keep going. My coach and the other four runners turned the other way and I heard a shout from Coach Mark, "Leslie, this way!"

I was surprised. "We're done?" I said, still slowly jogging as if at a stop light. I still had energy left, and was ready to keep going. I looked at my watch, which only read 4 miles. We usually go 7-8 miles on a Wednesday run. "Yep" he said, heading south towards where we came from only 45 minutes earlier. "We're done."

It's the final "push week" of training for the Chicago Marathon. This Saturday/Sunday is the scheduled 20 mile run for trainers. This week typically has the highest mileage, the most intense workouts, and it's the cumulation of a whole summer's worth of hard work. For Chicago runners, that's a whole summer's worth of running in one of the hottest, most humid summers in a long while.

People are tired. At least the runners I was with tonight were. Jennifer noted how exhausted she was, how hard she's work and was saddened to admit that she's still 20 seconds per mile too slow to qualify for Boston. A mere 20 seconds per mile too slow. Heartbreaking.

Trish - who is normally a rocket of a runner....tonight gave out. Literally just stopped. Everything is hitting everybody tonight - except me. I was secretly hoping to have been pushed a few more miles.

Oh well. I ran an extra mile home, took a shower, and dove into some Cracked Pepper Triscuits.

I should rest.....I guess.....I do have 20 miles to run on Sunday.