Since I went on the overnight with our church youth group Friday night I was pretty wiped out when I got home Sat evening and put my long run off until today. It was warmer today (38) put still pretty windy. Today I planned on doing the long run with at least 10 miles at MP plus I wanted to run the other 10 at faster than normal pace so that when I hit the MP miles my legs would be more tired than normal. I started out I didn't feel the best. It might have been from the lack of sleep on Fri or from not eating well the last couple of days. Anyway the legs didn't feel sharp plus I had some GI issues going on. Still I ran the first 5 miles in the 7:50 range then ran the next 5 in the 7:40 range. After 10 I picked it up to MP and for the last 10 ran between 7:20 and 7:35 with most of the miles around 7:25. Turned out to be a pretty good run since I was able to run a decent pace despite not feeling my best plus having to deal with the wind. Also, I ran this 20 miles 35 seconds per mile faster than my marathon PR. Should give me some confidence for Huntsville. I have 3 weeks until the marathon and this time plan to do a 2 week taper. For my last marathon it seemed like I felt best 2 weeks into the taper and got flat the last week. I will try to this and see how it goes. 2:33:11 (7:40 avg) | 