On the road to BOSTON!

No run today- woke up with headache and decided to take the day off- Had injections in both feet to prevent the neuromas from kicking in during the marathon.

Went out for a good bike ride to not mess the feet up this morning, still a touch sore from the injections.

21 miles on the bike on the trails to River Road and then over and around Jedora then back on to River to the highway to SunRiver to home: 18 mph

Last real run of the week before the marathon- Ran over to Bloomington Hills Park by way of the Pilot Station. Legs felt pretty fresh not a lot of speed but wasn't really after that today. I went out @ 8:05 pace and just wanted to try and hold a steady pace and hope to keep it under 8.

8:05/ 7:59/ 7:50/ 7:46/ 7:30/ 7:46/ 7:25/ 7:12------> mile 8 I was running in the dirt so that slowed me a bit, other than the I am pleased with the progressive faster pace on each mile. 7:44 average pace.

Now it is continued rest with a mile or two on Friday- Hoping my new shoes come in so I can run at least a mile in them before the race.

Not the race I was hoping for!

The weather was warm but not as bad as I thought it could be. At least there was several miles of coolish temps at the top.

The goal was to run 3:25:

Started off towards the front and got in a good pace.

1)7:48 for the first mile. Things were nice and easy

2)7:34 just nice and steady, easy breathing

3-6) 7:09/ 7:02/ 7:16 Nothing rushed, the breathing was good, I was feeling great!

7)6:55 Must have gotten a little excited to get to aid station and gu up for the Veyo hill.

8)8:45 didn't push hard, took a few walking breaks wanting to save the legs

9-13) Just got into a good groove 8:03/ 7:57/ 9:40/ 7:57/ 7:33  These miles were right on plan except for the 9:40- stopped to adjust my shoes- took more time than I had hoped.

As I hit the halfway mark I was about 1 minute ahead of my plan but was starting to fade. My feet were beginning to give me grief! This seemed to knock me out of it mentally. All I could focus on was the feet.

14)9:59 re adjust shoes

15-16) 7:54/ 7:30 I tried to put the feet issue behind me and just went ahead hoping they would mellow out.

17)-26.2 Don't even want to talk about these miles. I averaged 10+ pace from here to the finish walking a lot of time and trying to get some runs in. The feet were painful and I started to get cramps in my upper calves. I pretty much bagged the race at 17 and decided I was going to finish one way or another even if it wasn't pretty....... When I rounded the last corner of the course I stopped and took both shoes off and ran in with my socks. I was showing to everyone that I am done running marathons. My feet just can't seem to handle the pounding of a full marathon.

My time of 3:53:06 was 10 seconds slower than my first St. George Marathon...how depressing!

I need to grow some cojones and get stronger mentally and run through pain rather than whimping out and walking through the pain.

I have now been thinking and letting my mind wonder and have actually thought of running another marathon because I can't let this bad memory be my last one....................