Day 98

The morning started with my second to last long run before the marathon - since the taper has begun, it was "only" 13 miles. Anna jumped on board to run all 13 with Andy and I (yay!) so we met at the club to start from there. It wasn't until we were pulling out of the garage to drive over to the club that we realized it was raining hard. Needless to say... this was the mood before heading out:

Do we really have to go?

Thankfully it wasn't raining as hard in that area as it was at our apartment.... but it was still raining.

Anna and Andy have accepted the weather. I'm still not thrilled...

But as it seems to happen more often than not, our efforts were quickly rewarded, and shortly after starting our run, the rain stopped and we had about 12 miles of dry running weather. :-)

The plan for the run was rather complicated, but it helped mix up the scenery by sending us off in a different direction than we normally go. Anna, Andy, and I started at the club... ran 3 miles - made it to Sarah's house.... Sarah joined - we all ran 7.5 miles together, ending back at Sarah's house - dropped her off... then Anna, Andy, and I ran 2.5 miles back to the club. Now THAT took some serious creativity to map that route!

It was fun to have a big running party with all four of us, although we did end up going faster than I typically aim to do my long runs. I was paying for it by the end. Even though we didn't have far to go, I was really struggling. A HUGE thank you to Anna for being my coach/cheerleader that last mile.

All smiles now that we're done!

Babs (yes I'm talking to myself) - let this be a lesson to you to not go too fast, even if you feel like you can!

My back hurt a lot pretty much the minute I stopped running... I did some stretches, and then put on a big Icy Hot patch on my lower back after I showered. I think it helped a lot, although my entire body still feels "used" right now. Did I mention that I'm excited to start tapering???

After the run I had to rush to my final concert duty of the week. This one was for a kids concert. As hectic as they are, I think the programs always turn out really well, so it was sort of "fun." Then Andy and I had our celebration dinner at Dinosaur BBQ with the new clarinetist in the orchestra and his wife. I hope I didn't scare them by how thoroughly I cleaned my plate, but I mean... I did basically run a half marathon this morning, so they'll just have to live with it.

Time for another round of Icy Hot - then I'm hitting the hay!

Total Miles Run: 363.48
Total Weight Change: -10.6