They all can't be "easy" runs.

16.25 miles. 2:32:30, 9:23 pace, Hood route to legacy trail to circus bridge and back. 1:15:50 at halfway. Hot. 82 deg., 74% hum., 72 d.p. 

7.5 miles hood route to legacy trail and back. 31:38 out (8:26 pace). 30:10 back (8:03 pace). 1:01:14 all (8:14 pace). 83 deg., 65% hum., 70 d.p., and those numbers seem low. I guess the beauty of training in Florida is I am pretty much guaranteed better weather conditions on race day, if I race out of state. Delaware, on race day, is predicted to be about 2/3 of those numbers on race day.

13 days to race day, and man, I don't know what an appropriate goal marathon finish should be. If you look at my intervals, you'd think I should go for a 3:20 finish. If you look at my handy pace by the pound guide, 3:26 is a good goal. But over the last 3 months, I haven't seen the tempo times drop any. I'm still doing just under 8 minute miles on a good day, and just over 8:30s on a bad day. So should I look for a 3:36 finish time? I've finished marathons better than that on far worse training cycles. And my long runs have been even worse. If you look only at my long runs, you would be impressed if I finished with anything under 4:00. I'm hoping something will reveal itself to me before race day, and then I will now what to do.

Who am I kidding? I run by feel anyway! I have consistently abandoned every race plan at the sound of the gun. 

5.5 miles. hood route. 77 deg., 84% hum., 72 d.p. 45:34. 8:17 pace. Dead otters smell really bad after a few days. 

Oh yeah, I had Nitzer Ebb songs on the mental playlist this morning. That's some obscure stuff. 

3 trails / 1.5 hood route / 3 trails. 94 degrees. 

7.75 miles Hood Route to legacy trail over the SWOM Bridge and back. Last 3.75 in 33:14 (8:52 pace). I ran roughly the same pace on the way out, but I botched the start thing. It was all really easy miles, and never pushing it. 84 deg., 68% hum., 72 d.p.

10.2 miles. Hood route to legacy trail to colonia and back. 1:27:42. 8:36 pace. Not pushing. First mile was 9, and the rest picked up pace. Hot, but I don't have exact numbers.

Then (non-running stuff) immediately to pop's house for tree trimming, lawn mowing, edging, etc.  I'm beat.  After, we had sandwiches my mom made. Then a really meaningful conversation about faith with mom. It was a good day with my octogenarian parents. I am fortunate to have my parents around, at my age. It is fantastic that they live just down the street. But, even with that advantage, I find that most of our conversations are about the mundane - fix the screen door, next week's doctors appointments, look at the water heater, trim the trees, see what's going on with that one irrigation head, next month's graduation plans for Tommy, stuff like that. But when Mom realizes that her days here may be few, and is desperately compelled to tell me what Jesus has done in her life, to make sure that I know, I have to step back and be grateful for what I have. She's awesome. 

5.5 miles in the pouring rain. I mean buckets. In the last 1/4 .Ile, I did about 30 yards in ankle deep water. 48:38. 8:51 pace . Happy Easter!

PM: 4 miles along West Venetian Waterway Park. Venice Avenue south past Venice High School to the pavilion and back. 14:48 out. 14:20 back. 29:08, 7:17 pace overall. 76 deg., 63% hum., 63 d.p., and 20 mph winds.

6 days to race day. Looking back at what I've done over the last 3 months, I think I'm ready to finish a marathon. It is one of the more disciplined training cylces I've had. But in hindsight, I think I needed more runs like this. Something in the 3-6 mile range. Where I'm not red-lining (like intervals), but the effort is raised a bit. On the next go around, I think I'll try to do more tempos, and more fast-finish long runs. I still think 50-60 miles a week is where I should be. I'll just try to put more emphasis on a goal pace, rather than only logging miles. 

7 noontime miles on the trails. 

am: at track. 1.5 up. (2) x 800m w/ 400m recoveries. Recoveries run first. 1.5 down. 3:10, 3:08. Light rain and wind.  

4 miles in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Then spouse and I rented bikes, and rode around much of the first third of the race course. We went around Gordon's pond in henlopen park. Unbelievable beauty. The temperature changes here are pretty quick. Several

times today the Temps swung 20 degrees in less than a half hour. Also, This town is crazy wealthy.

7 am start. It was very hot, and I wilted on the second half. Badly. At race start - 60 degrees, 100% humidity, 55 degree dew point.  At race finish - 76 degrees, 61% humidity, 62 degree dew point. 0% cloud cover (and tree shade for maybe 3 miles total) for the entire race, but also 0 mph wind. There are no hills. The course has a couple of odd U-turns, but no hills. Also, the race goes around "Gordon's Pond" early in the race, which is a marshy area, that kind of stinks like dead fish for about 2 miles. 

I'm a guy that trains in @ 80 degrees, 90% humidity, 70+ dew point, and spent a month running in red tide stink. I thought I would have an edge. I can't imagine anyone else out there training in the exact race conditions. It doesn't matter. I started running 7:30s, and finished with running 10:20s in the last 5 miles. 7:52 pace overall on the first half. 9:22 pace overall on the second half. I got knee deep in the Atlantic Ocean after the race, and I think it did me some good. The water temperature was really low. Spouse and I met some nice folks at the Grotto’s pizza post-race party. I don’t know what’s next for me. I am happy about knocking off another state. I am mostly happy with my training leading up to the race. But a 19:45 positive split is giving me some pause about getting super-stoked! for my next race, whatever that is.

The weather the rest of the time we were in Rehoboth Beach was spectacular. I found myself getting irritated about the fact that the weather conditions in the town were better for running everyday we were there, than they were on race day. Easily 10 degrees cooler everyday, with some breezes. Neither Spouse or I have ever been to Delaware before. We spent the next 2 days riding around the area on rented bikes. The race course is beautiful. The whole town is beautiful. I mean, really amazing. Also, Rehoboth Beach has an intense tourist season that goes from May to September. So in mid-April, there are not many folks around, and room rentals are cheap. We could ride bikes without worrying too much about traffic. Everything was in bloom. There were cherry blossoms blowing across the street, when we were riding bikes. We rode bikes through the president’s neighborhood, where we saw 4 deer just poking around. Crazy right? I mean, just amazing.

3 on the trails. Everything still works.

4 on the trails. 

7.75 miles. Hood route to legacy trail, over the swom bridge and back. 10 am start. 83 deg., 69% hum., 72 d.p.