It’s now officially taper time! The Marine Corps Marathon is in three weeks, and I finished my last 20-mile run today.

And actually, I neglected to write about my second-to-last 20 miler two weeks ago. It was a good run. I averaged 10:28/mile and finished just under 3:30. I was quite happy with it!

Though it was a bit more painful than I would have liked. My legs got really tight during the run, and I started taking stretch breaks at all the water stops. I had a busy day, too, so no time to really recover properly, and my knees were pretty sore. I was limping a bit the next day!

I’m happy to report today’s run went a bit more smoothly. Sure, my legs still got tight, but I didn’t have any knee trouble.  I’m a little sore tonight (it probably doesn’t help that I’ve been sitting on the couch, rarely getting up, for several hours now!), which is to be expected. But I’m getting around a lot better than I was last time!

My second run was a few minutes slower, but I don’t really care about that. Overall, I was a lot more consistent with my pace on today’s run.  Both runs were on the same route, so it’s a good comparison. Both were nice days, though it was a lot warmer on Sept. 25!

It’s kind of amusing that my watch thought I was running a 7:35 pace for the last two seconds today. I’m quite certain I wasn’t actually moving that fast!

While my run was technically three minutes slower today, I only tracked the time spent running — I paused at water/stretch/bathroom breaks. The actual elapsed time from when I started my runs was 12 minutes faster today!

It feels good to be done with the longest runs. For the most part, though, I have been enjoying them. It’s getting close to race day, and I’m excited!