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!

Most of the time, I don’t mind running in the rain. It’s tough to make yourself go out there in a downpour, but actually it’s not that bad if you get caught in one. Once you’re wet, you’re wet!

Light rain is OK too, just wear a rimmed hat to keep the water out of your face — tech fabric of course, so it doesn’t get too heavy. I also have a couple water-resistant jackets for when the weather is cooler.

The only thing that’ll keep us indoors is thunder and lightning — that’s just not safe. But if it’s just raining, my friends and I still meet up as scheduled.

Last week, I saw this tweet from Renee:

Sure, it’s fine to skip a run if the weather’s bad. But to say you don’t run in the rain at all? I knew she was training for a half marathon. She needed to be prepared for anything!

That got her thinking …

I’m a lot less likely to take my bike out in the rain  … but my own advice worked well for me earlier in the summer.

During that training ride, I had been wearing sunglasses prior to the downpour. Once they got rain-soaked I could barely see, so I took them off. Turns out getting rain in my eyes at 15mph is a lot more annoying than blurry lenses. Glad I figured that out, otherwise I wouldn’t have known to wear my sunglasses during Iron Girl!

Hooray!

I think she had a successful run!

In fact, I even caught her encouraging another tweeter to run in the rain!

Awesome.

Do you run in the rain? Have any bad-weather tips?

Today my marathon group ran 20 miles.

I knew in advance that I was going to have an issue running that distance today. I sang most of the day with my choir for Yom Kippur services (we are a secular choir hired by a local congregation), starting at 9 a.m. Even with a 6:30 start, I’m not fast enough to cover that much mileage!

So I switched up my plan. I was already off their schedule, anyway, when I ran back-to-back long(ish) runs the week the first 20 miler (I was in Virginia Beach running the half marathon instead).

Well, last Saturday Liz hosted a blogger potluck picnic in DC.  It was a lovely day, and I got to meet some new people – Kirstin, Abby, Beth, Molly and  Alex (and Liz, of course).

Anyway, when Liz initially posted about this early afternoon meet-up, my reply was tentative. I was scheduled to run 16 miles that day. How would I feel about driving  ~45 minutes into DC directly after a long run?

But as we got closer to the event, she emailed us the details and mentioned that the time was flexible as long as it didn’t move too much earlier.  She had a 16-mile run scheduled that day.

Hmm … I wrote her back asking  if she’d want some company!

It worked out perfectly.  While she’d been running her long runs a bit faster than me, I also knew I was capable of pushing myself a little harder. She would have slowed down for me if I needed it, but I think we were  both pretty happy with the pace. We ended up averaging about 9:45 for 16 miles.

Even though I lived in DC for three years, I wasn’t a runner back then.  I lived less than two miles from Rock Creek Park but had never been there. It was great running through a forest in the middle of the city!

We did an out-and-back run, and the miles just flew by. Before we knew it, we were at the turnaround. The run felt great — even at this faster-than-normal pace. There were even a couple of walk breaks (one for Gu/fuel, the other for a large hill  around mile 14 that we ran half of before deciding it wasn’t worth it!) included in the overall pace.

We went back to Liz’s place to shower and stretch, then it was off to the picnic! (See Liz’s post to see pictures of our fabulous food selections, since I didn’t take any photos. Everything was delicious. Perfect for refueling!)

After a few hours in the park, I arrived back home around 5 p.m.

It was still a gorgeous day. And it would be light out for a bit longer. I could just collapse into the couch … or I could go for another run to make it 20 miles.

You know what I did.

I expected it to be very slow and painful. Yes, of course it was slower than the run earlier in the day. But I was pleasantly surprised that I averaged 10:18/mile for those four miles. I wouldn’t have been surprised if I was running 11-minute miles.  And it wasn’t even all that painful!

I still have yet to run 20 consecutive miles at in this marathon training session, but I’m not worried. Plenty of time!