Ran Lakeview route at noon with Bill. Just nice and easy taper miles. Felt pretty good although there were the usual taper phantom pains and bit of sluggishness. Hamstrings are getting gradually better although still tighter than I'd like them to be.

It's sure been a tough weekend for my sister-in-law and brother. However she is seeing some improvements today and there is hope that she might be able to avoid surgery and return home in the next couple of days. I really hope this is the case. The other good news is that Kim was able to run 4 miles today with no ITB pain. Super!

Plan for the rest of the week is to do another 5 tomorrow with 2 miles at MP, then easy the rest of the week with 4 on Wednesday and 3 on either Thursday or Friday with maybe a few striders thrown in.

Ave pace 9:03. Ave/Max HR: 142/167.

Late AM run at work. A little warm for running (mid 60s and sunny) but this is probably what the last 5-10 miles might be like Saturday so I figured this was a good time to try a couple of MP pace miles on good 'ol scenic Kuhni Road. Warmed up for 2.5 miles then 2 miles at MP then 1/2 mile cooldown. I'm still not feeling quite right and the pace should have felt easier. I think I'll take an extra rest day tomorrow, then run 3 miles on Thursday and rest on Friday.

MP mile paces were 6:58 (HR 174/181) and 7:03 (HR 183/187).

Almost identical to the MP 2 miles I did Saturday morning but HR is higher, I'm assuming because of the heat. Sure wish that cool weather they say is coming could arrive a little early and help us out on Saturday. Oh how I like to worry and fret.....

Decided to heed Dale's advice and ran 3 easy relaxing miles with Kimi in the morning rather than take the day off. Pretty mild for an October morning but it looks like we're in for a big change over the weekend. I'm really liking the latest forecasts for Dixie, looks like we could have some nice cool temps for the race, however the wind could be an issue. Someone help me get this straight......when they say in weather forecasts something like.."Wind S to SW at 20 mph"....does that mean the wind is blowing FROM the South/SouthWest or does it mean the wind is blowing from NorthNE TOWARD the SouthSW? If it's the latter then I'm happy as it means we may have a tailwind for the race, but otherwise it means a crummy headwind.

Got a massage last night to work over the legs one more time before the race. Hopefully it will help loosen me up. I had hoped by this point of the taper some of my lingering aches/pains would be gone, but unfortunately I can still feel the familiar lower abs, groin, and hamstring stuff, although the pains are mild and don't bother me much during the run. I suspect it may take many weeks or even months of cross-training and/or very slow running to fully recover from my many weeks/months of overtraining and leg-abuse over the summer and not always listening to my body.

But hey we live and we learn, I'm still very excited for the race and can't wait to see what happens, not only for me but for everyone else - especially Kim. All of us who can run and have are health are just so lucky to even be able to be a part of the marathon experience. What a glorious thing to be fit and healthy and be able to enjoy life to the fullest. There are so many around us who don't ever get the opportunity to experience all the joys of life, some due to their own choices, but many others (like my sister-in-law) who through no fault of their own have to watch from the sidelines.

So now we're to Wednesday and 3 days out it means we can start officially start fueling for the race, right? HAPPY CARBO-LOADING EVERYONE!!

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY TIA!!! OUR BABY IS 8 YEARS OLD!

 Decided to not run either today or tomorrow. Looking back on the training year I noticed I've only had one other occurence of 2 consecutive non-running days in 2008 clear back in March. A little reward to my body after all the abuse the last 18 months since I last ran a marathon. If I was smarter I probably would have taken a few days off in the Spring when the minor injuries that have plagued me all Summer first reared their ugly face.

I'm actually starting to feel really good yesterday and today and the legs are starting to feel pretty juiced. I've also been able to sleep pretty well all week compared to other pre-marathon weeks. And I'm loving the latest weather forecasts except for the headwind potential, but with our good-size sub-3 group if we help each other and run as a pack, at least for a while like Andy has suggested, we should be able to do pretty well against ol' Mr. Headwind.

On a side note we were so glad my sister-in-law was able to be released from the hospital yesterday. They'll make the trip back home to SoCal today so hopefully all goes well.

Folks the time is almost here. It's time to have us a jolly old time while we all do our very best that we can do for that day. I think I'm feeling some YEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAWWWWWWWW!!!!

Hurricane Headwind Hoedown!!

Originally I wanted to use a different word for the last word of the title that starts with 'H' and is 4 letters but in keeping with the family-friendly spirit of the blog and because I want to focus on the POSITIVES of the race I decided to go with the "Hoedown" headline.

Like every else has already mentioned we had a lovely time today running in a driving rain and headwind for the ENTIRE RACE! It was FUN FUN FUN!!! Actually in a weird way it was kind of fun and I'm not really all that disappointed I didn't get the sub-3.

So far looking at the race reports of everyone in our sub-3 group who has posted it doesn't look like anyone was successful at finishing with a time starting with a '2'. Looks like Riverton Paul was close, and I haven't seen Andy's report yet so maybe he or someone else in the group was able to pull it off.

Kinda tired right now so this may not be the full report.....here are the splits:

Mile 1 - 7:07 (a bit slow but nearly impossible to go much faster with slower runners in front, running with Terry oldBean and running into other sub-3 group bloggers here and there)

Mile 2 - 7:00

Mile 3 - 6:40 feeling pretty good for the next 4 miles or so, Terry is pulling me along)

Mile 4 - 6:33

Mile 5 - 6:48

Mile 6 - 6:24

Mile 7 - 6:24

Mile 8 - 7:54

Mile 9 - 7:43

Mile 10 - 7:24 (starting to not quite be able to hit our splits, off by 5-10 seconds due to the dang headwind)

Mile 11 - 7:35

Mile 12 - 7:13

Mile 13 - 6:57 (splits starting to be off by more like 10-20 seconds but still 1:33 at 1/2, not quite the 1:31-1:32 as planned but sub-3 still doable if we can nail the 2nd half and negative split)

Mile 14 - 7:02

Mile 15 - 6:33 (liking the downhill, but calves are starting to complain)

Mile 16 - 6:26

Mile 17 - 7:01 (Terry's legs are shot so he drops back, my wheels are starting to wobble as well)

Mile 18 - 7:26 (Wheels wobbling badly, calves starting to cramp up and I can't hold pace. Not breathing very hard but nothing I can do)

Mile 19 - 8:22 (Realize the sub-3 isn't going to happen, just going to try for PR at this point - anything under 3:17

Mile 20 - 7:49 (Calves are totally shot and in major pain, not fun at all and can't make any use of the downhill)

Mile 21 - 7:16

Mile 22 - 7:54

Mile 23 - 8:02

Mile 24 - 7:44 (Somewhere around here Marcie J catches up to me and gives me a bit of motivation to pick up the pace. Ran with her for a bit until her shoelace unties for I think what she said was the 3rd time. She has to recruit a volunteer to do the tying as it looks like her legs are as shot as mine and bending down is major pain and maybe won't be able to start up again. I can totally relate)

Mile 25 - 7:59

Mile 26 - 7:42 (Marcie J catches up again and give me some motivation. Then dang Terry old Bean who I thought for sure I would BEAT for the VERY FIRST TIME EVER shows up out of nowhere and blows by me. I accept defeat momentarily then get really, really mad and actually yell at the top of my lungs "NO - YOU AREN'T GOING TO BEAT ME" and I speed up to about 7 min pace for about 50 yards until the calves do some major cramping and I just can't hold the pace. I have to let Terry go and hope that my day to defeat my high school buddy and running mentor will come on another, better day. Also see James W walking about 2-3 blocks from the finish. I yell at him to run in with me and appear to awake him from his momentary funk and he takes off like a wild man and leaves me in the dust. I'm happy I was able to provide him a little boost).

Mile 26.2 - 1:58 (7:57 pace).

Nice to meet and talk to lots of bloggers. Looks like many folks are off by 10-20 minutes so I don't feel quite as bad being well off the sub-3. Congrats to those few who were able to find a way to overcome the headwind and reach their goal times.

Highlight of the race was finding Kim for a big hug and kiss after she finished her very first marathon in just over 4 hours despite some hairy knee problems.  Great job Babe!

UPDATE: One other "positive" I just noticed. I finally beat the guy from Payson who beat me at Speedy Spaniard by 3 seconds and at Provo River 1/2 by 4 seconds. This time I beat HIM by 4 minutes!

Terry - you're day is coming...... :-)