Yesterday was our final “long” run before the marathon.

A lot of training programs stop at 20 or 22 miles, but we wanted to get a little closer. We ran 24 miles. The schedule we’ve been following actually had this weekend’s run set for 24-26 miles, but we didn’t need to get that close!

We ran in Virginia along the Mount Vernon Trail. We stashed a car at Daingerfield Island, and then drove down to Fort Hunt Park where we started running north along the trail.

We stopped at Daingerfield Island (mile 9) for a water and potty stop. Then we continued running to Gravelly Park just beyond the airport.

That’s where I learned about bird cannons — to keep pigeons off the tarmac, there would be periodic blasts to scare the birds away. Kind of scary to runners passing by as well!

We returned to Daingerfield Island for one more water stop and a change of socks, knowing we only had nine more miles to go!

I’m happy to report it went very well. My knee threatened me around mile 14, but it stopped within a mile or so, only hinting pain again at the very end. We had already hit 24 miles and were walking back to the cars at that point.

I guess I’ve been pretty confident ever since we hit 20 that I could finish a marathon, but this milestone still feels great!

And it didn’t even hurt that much 🙂