Yesterday I ran my final 20-miler of training for the Steamtown Marathon . I knew that if I could make it through that run without injury, I'd be good to go for the race. And I'm happy to report that I did! But the run wasn't without some folly.  Because my youngest niece was having a birthday party on the same day I was scheduled to do this training run, I'd planned ahead for Tim and I to spend the night at my dad's house in Longwood (which is close to where my niece lives). I knew my dad lived very close to the Seminole Wekiva Trail , so I planned the 20-miler on this route. Or so I thought. We knew my dad lived 2.5 miles from the trail, so we would just need 15 miles on the trail, or 7.5 out and back. I used someone's Map My Run route to get an idea of how many miles we'd be able to get at the entrance point from my dad's house. I even "enhanced" the map with my own notations, for Tim's benefit. The map I studied and enhance...

I signed up for this race months ago with my friend Kristin and her family and friends from PA/DE. The Nike Women's Marathon series (which they seem to have renamed Run Nike Women Series) recently added a couple of half marathons to the series, and this was the inaugural half marathon in Washington, DC. Registration was only open to those who were chosen from a drawing for eligibility. We entered as a group, and as luck would have it, our group got in! It was an exciting moment to receive the email notification--but a less exciting moment when I realized that my credit card would then be charged the exorbitant $160+ registration fee, but this was largely because of the  Tiffany & Co.  necklace awarded to finishers in place of a typical race medal. But it still meant a trip to DC, and because I didn't get to run the Marine Corps Marathon in DC last fall, I was looking forward to the redemption race. I have mixed feelings about the overall event. The race itself was wonde...

Last week was basically an anticipatory build-up to my second 20-miler, which I initially wasn't planning to do, as that meant I'd end up with three total before the marathon. But I was feeling good enough to do it, and in a way I think I was still riding the success of the first one . Also last week, I got two more CrossBoot classes in--one was a morning holiday session (for Labor Day), which are notoriously brutal sessions, and the other was my normal Wednesday night class. I feel really good when I can get two classes in per week; although, in the immediate days following, my legs don't feel great when I run, but I think in the long run (no pun intended), I'm getting stronger and even a bit faster. I wasn't as good about doing morning runs last week, and in fact, I fell two miles short of my weekly mileage because my Tuesday run, which I switched with my Thursday run, was a painful one (and should have been six miles). For pretty much the first time this t...