The Bridge Run

After my difficult 22 mile long run last weekend, I was really lacking the motivation to continue my marathon training this past week. I had to remind myself that the toughest part of training was over and then I was ready to lace my kicks back up. I started my taper a week early because I wanted to run the Bridge Run this past weekend. My body was extremely happy to begin cutting back on my mileage. The weekday mileage is still a little high, but I knew that these would be some of the most important runs left in my training. The weekday runs were a bit tricky this week because the beautiful summer weather has finally arrived. It was cloudy and a bit cooler on Tuesday after school so I was able to get a nice quick run in. On Wednesday, Sandy and I headed to the rail trail even though it was incredibly hot and sunny. She wanted to run 4 miles and I needed to run 8 miles. We ran almost 3 miles before we stopped to walk and then got smoothies instead of continuing. I went back out closer to dusk when it was cooler out and finished my other 5 miles. On Thursday, I met Michelle for a quick run in the early evening. She only needed to run 2 miles before the Bridge Run and I had to run 3 more miles after that since I am still in marathon training. After my 5 miler, I was so happy to have a couple of days off and I was glad that I stuck to my training plan all week. Before I get into a recap of the Bridge Run, here's a look at week 27:

Week 27
4/30/13 - 4 miles in 36:53 (9:13 min/mi pace)
5/1/13 - 8 miles in 1:19:36 (9:57 min/mi pace)
5/2/13 - 5 miles in 50:24 (10:05 min/mi pace)
5/5/13 - BRIDGE RUN HALF MARATHON - 13.1 miles in 2:16:27 (10:24 min/mi pace)

I ended week 27 with my last race before I run the Buffalo Marathon. Two years ago I ran the 5K for the first year of the Bridge Run and last year I ran the half marathon for the Bridge Run. I was really excited to be running the half for the second year in a row. The Bridge Run is a great race and a great event for Binghamton to host. It's amazing that over 2,000 runners come together to run a half marathon or 5K race in Binghamton. I headed into the Bridge Run with the attitude that this was just going to be a long run for me. I had no goal time or pace that I wanted to maintain. My goal was just to finish the 13.1 miles since I am still in training for the Buffalo Marathon. I did everything that I needed to do to prepare for the Bridge Run, but I still woke up feeling nervous like I do before every race. The nervous feeling went away once I made my way to the start line and got ready for the race to begin. I was a bit later than I wanted to be, but luckily I found Michelle and Brian a few minutes before the race began. We started the race off towards the back so that we would be able to pass plenty of people during the race. We ran a slow first mile and then began to slowly pick up the pace after that. It was a beautiful morning, but it was getting hot pretty quickly. We were doing great for the first few miles without any problems. I got a really bad cramp in my side around mile 7 and I just wanted to throw up and/or stop running, but luckily neither happened! By the time that we got to mile 10 and had passed over the hilliest part of the course, I was feeling good again. I probably could have ran faster if I was actually trying for a personal best, but I was happy to just be running for fun during a race for once. The whole race seemed to fly by and was like a blur to me. There were moments when I thought that I might have a personal best, but I was not disappointed when I did not. Michelle got quiet around mile 12, but luckily we all made it to mile 13.1 without any problems. We finished the race in 2:16:27, which was 5 minutes faster than last year for me and 15 minutes faster than last year for Brian and Michelle.

I was pretty happy after the Bridge Run that we had all done so well. It was not my best race ever, but I have definitely improved quite a bit as a runner over the past year. I am now only 20 days away from the Buffalo Marathon and I am beginning to feel a mix of emotions. I am excited, anxious and nervous all at the same time. I do not think that I would have been able to run another 13.1 miles yesterday after the race, but then I remember that's why we taper for a few weeks before the race. I am sure that with the lower mileage and time to rest my legs and body a bit that I will be fully prepared for this race. I have my moments where I doubt my ability to be able to run 26.2 miles, especially after struggling so much with 22 miles last week. I know that the race is going to be a struggle, but I have been preparing for 27 weeks. I have ran almost 500 miles since the end of October and I have put a lot of work into training for this marathon. I think that my body is just about as physically prepared as it is ever going to be to run 26.2 miles. I just need to spend the next 3 weeks mentally preparing myself for this race and building my confidence in my ability to do this. I cannot believe that I am going to attempt to conquer 26.2 miles in just under 3 weeks now. This day seemed like it would never get here and now it is so close to arriving. I hope that the last 3 weeks of training get me motivated enough to be fully prepared for this race both physically and mentally. It's not going to be easy, but I am (almost) ready to conquer 26.2 miles!

471.1 miles complete in 75:56:17 and only 20 days until conquering 26.2 miles!