Made It Out On the Long Walk…

I Did Just Fine…

Actually a little better than expected. I ended up cutting the walk short by two miles down to 11 miles because it was Friday and part of my mapped path went past the new Circa Casino and Fremont Street downtown and on a Friday, that’s just too stupid and too dangerous Covid-wise. So once I realized I had laid out that path and it was Friday, I just cut off that loop and ended at 11 miles.

No issues with the feet and at eight miles I did some running to see how that felt and it was fine. And this course tonight had a ton of stoplights I had to wait at, curbs up and down, and some uphill stuff, but I still managed to average under 15 minutes per mile pace without hardly any running.

So very happy with the test. As I figured, next Saturday I will make the first 13 miles just fine, the next 7 okay, and the last six will be rough. But should make it if I avoid injuries.

And the first 13 miles I will be doing a great deal of running. I hope to do the first six miles in about an hour (to just barely beat my best 10K time), the next seven miles in in an hour and 30 minutes. That will buy me a lot of extra time to try to beat the six hour pace I want to accomplish.

So next Saturday night I will give you an update.

Only real bummer about this being my first marathon in 40 years is that I will be all alone. (Yes I did one when I was 30 years old.) No one, because of Covid, is even allowed to be along the course or at the start or finish lines. And so few people are running because of restrictions and in waves, they sent out a warning yesterday that we all needed to really learn the course since chances are we won’t be able to see other runners. But I think I will be ready.

I honestly have zero doubt I will be the last one on the course, since I will be slow and I am starting in the last wave of 22 runners. I just hope they remember I am out there somewhere. (grin)

I suppose if I get lost or they forget I am still on the course, Kris can come get me.

Update next week.