Turkeys, Tempos, and Tapering

It's Tuesday afternoon, and I am sitting at home trying to fight off some sort of illness. My head is stuffy, my stomach is rumbling angrily, and it feels like someone sucked all the liquid out of my brain. My running friends aren't too sympathetic; a few even suggested that a couple days in bed would force me to taper, leaving me fresh as a daisy for Sunday's marathon. We'll see.

My last scheduled workout was a sixteen kilometer run at marathon pace. Finding time to squeeze it in was nearly impossible; the run was scheduled on Thanksgiving, and I had a two hour drive and a huge family function already planned for the day. I also didn't know where I would run, as I was spending my day in Prince William (my fiancee's family is from the area) and had never run in the area before. I considered blowing it off completely, but decided that would be a bad idea. No need to slack off so close to the big day. I just needed to find a window of opportunity and jump through it.

I woke up first thing in the morning and immediately hit the road to Prince William. For those of you that don't know the area, Prince William is within spitting distance (not that I spit) of King's Landing and offers spectacular views of the Saint John River. I initially planned to run from Sarah's grandmother's house to King's Landing and back, but wasn't sure of the distance. I reset the car's odometer at the King's Landing exit, started driving, and hit the driveway right as the odometer hit eight kilometers. Perfect.

Now I had to find time to run. The first item on my itinerary was a walk/truck in the woods, which included a lot of bumpy back roads, beautiful scenery, and a few roasted marshmallows. I found a few stubby beer bottles during the trip, which I decided were antiques and therefore must be kept for posterity. Expect to see them on the mantlepiece next time you visit my house.

We made it back to Sarah's grandmother's house at 2:30PM, and I was informed that dinner would be ready in two hours. This was my opportunity. I quickly changed into shorts and a long sleeve shirt and bolted out the door, hitting my stop watch as I dashed down the driveway.

I wasn't sure exactly how fast I was running, but it was certainly faster than one of my easy runs. I ran strong up every hill (there were a few), supported by a tail wind that noticeably propelled me forward on a few occasions. I hit the turnaround in 33:22 (about 90 seconds faster than planned), but I knew I had my work cut out for me if I wanted to hold that pace.

I was blasted by the wind as soon as I turned around, slowing me to a crawl at times. Luckily, the route now mostly downhill, which almost made up for the loss of speed. I felt great, especially considering how fast I was running. I did slow a little bit on the last five miles, but hit the driveway in 1:08:16, which would be good enough for a sub 3-hour marathon if I could maintain the pace. Pass the turkey, please.

Hopefully I'll have something good to blog about between now and the marathon. If not, I'll see you at the starting line!