Only a Marathon!

We ran the Umstead Trail Marathon this weekend and had a really good time. It was a great run and it was fun running some of the trails that we'll be running in the 100 next month. I'd forgotten just how hilly it was out there so that is a little daunting thinking about running about 75 additional miles for the 100. But, we'll just take it one hill at a time and get the job done. I ran it in 5:19 which was much faster than I thought I would but I felt good and had a great day. I was running with Marie and Susan but they fell back and I decided I'd just keep going as I was running at a nice comfortable pace and I felt strong. It started out with a big down pour but that only latest a few minutes and then it was clear sailing. I used my Garmin GPS and it came mapped the course as 26.58 miles instead of 26.2 making my splits average exactly a 12 minute mile. I was very happy with that and now need to determine how to run the 100. I basically ran every mile about the same pace so my endurance must be finally coming together as I could maintain it for 26+ miles. I guess my spinning and weight training are helping as well as dropping a couple of pounds. Now I just have to continue doing that until Umstead to be in really great shape for that. We'll be putting in our highest mileage this week and then will start the taper. That is sometimes the toughest part and it's easy to overtrain but we don't want to go into the race with tired legs. Been there, done that. It's time to really focus on what is best and just do what we need to do. I also want to focus on the mental part of training so that I'll be better equipped to handle whatever comes up for me out there. After running 26 miles yesterday it's tough to comprehend just how I'm going to be able to handle staying out there for many more than the 5 plus hours that I was out there yesterday. ONce thing that I plan to do out there is to just have fun and relax. My goal is to finish in 29:59:59! I'm going to eat lots of stuff out there and joke around. Last year I was too worried about not finishing and trying to eat the right stuff etc and guess what that didn't work so this year, I"m not going to worry about not finishing, whatever happens happens. I'll have done everything I can do to prepare, and if that's not enough, so be it. I'll try again but for now, it's going to be enough and I'll just do it one step at a time. No worries, no pressure!