It's getting closer...

5 days til marathon day.  YIKES.  Why did I think this was a good idea?  I probably should have just stuck to running halfs.  But oh well.  I signed up for it, I got one 20+ mile run done in the last few months, and I'm going to run this race.  And hopefully I will run it faster than my first marathon (3:16), but we'll see about that.   The Richmond Marathon is rumored to be fast and flat.  Fast sounds good.  Flat sound awful. I hope there are a few little hills to make me feel at home.  I'm still on the fence about whether or not to run with music, but I'm very tempted.  I haven't raced with music in almost 2 years.  But 26.2 miles is an awfully long way to go with no music.  Hitting the wall without even having a good song to carry me is not something I want to think about.  If I thought I was going to be competitive, I would be likely to leave the music behind.  But since this is an international race and it is unlikely that I will even place in my age group, I think I might just look at it as a run instead of a race, and allow the music.  We shall see.

This week:

M: 6.75 / 52:53 / 7:49

T: off

W: 9.51 / 1:11:33 / 7:31

R: off

F: 4.7 / 32:42 / 6:57

Sa:  off

Su: 4.53 / 34:26 / 7:36

total : 25.49

Here's the map and elevation profile of my run from Wednesday.  It has my favorite training hills for the Blue Ridge 1/2 Marathon.  They are shorter, but much, much steeper than the run up Mill Mountain in Roanoke.  

http://www.dailymile.com/routes/1612680-running-route-in-lewisburg-wv

On the run this week, I felt great, and I was racing the sunset, so I had a pretty good pace going.  The first three miles are hilly, but they aren't strenuous, and they are part of a 6.5-7 mile loop that I run fairly regularly.  I flew through that part pretty quickly.  Shortly after mile 4.5 is the first big hill.  207 feet of elevation to climb in about 0.44 miles. I did it in just under 4 minutes, which I believe is the fastest I have ever managed on that hill.  Then it was rolling hills, a long steep-ish downhill, and then another big climb.  276 feet of elevation to climb in 0.62 miles.  I powered up that one at a pretty good pace as well.  Someone I know drove past me about halfway up and said they wished they could run downhill as fast as I was running up the hill.  Once I got to the top of the hill, I knew I only had 2 or so miles left, so I turned on the speed even more, because it felt good, and because the sun was already below the horizon. I did manage to make it home before dark, but I did have to remove my sunglasses in the last mile, and it was dark not long after I got home.