A solid week and a strong finish

Another week of training is in the books. This week was my first 50 mile week since Rocky, and my legs are feeling great. I made each day count, and knocked out a little over 50 in 4 days of work. I started with a good 10 miler on Monday and followed it up with to good 7s on the hills on the house loop. Saturday brought cool weather and light rain- perfect conditions for the New River Marathon in Todd. I treated the race like a normal long saturday run. Figured I'd go out, cruise the flats, hike the climb, and cruise into the finish planning for a 4:15 to 4:30 time.

It was an early start to the day. When the alarm went off at 5:15 and it was raining, I was cursing my decision to do the marathon instead of just running one on my own later in the day. But, Ginger got coffee going and was in awesome Crew mode getting me fired up to get in a good run. It was chilly at the start but so pretty out in Todd. I had some good friends to run with, and I spent the 13 just running along, chatting with them, and meeting new folks on the course. I even ran into a guy from Linconlton who grew up with a couple of my buddies from the Recon days. Pretty cool, eh? What a small world! I think his name was David, and it was his first marathon. He ran along with Elissa, Andrew (another first timer), and me through the first 13 miles. As the road kicked up and we got into the big climb, Andrew slowed down and Edawgy, David, and I powered up the climbs in ultra mode (hiking). I felt great going up the climb. All the hill work has been paying off. We flew down the backside of the climb and then settled back into a 9:15ish pace for the next few miles chatting away and enjoying the scenery. It's worth mentioning here that I was wearing the Hokas since most of the course was on the road. They were fantastic! My feet felt great and my legs weren't feeling beat up at all. Those things are worth every penny I spent on them.

At mile 20, I looked at my watch and figured out that I could PR and get in under 4 hours if I picked up the pace. So, I decided it was a good time to stretch the legs and get a little hard effort training. I kicked the pace up and started running 8-8:40 miles for a while. That felt good so I started trying to stay really close to 8. My lungs were feeling great, and my legs were feeling even better so I kept it up and started picking people off along the way. As I got into the last mile, I knew sub 4 would happen, and I kicked it into higher gear. I was happy to see Ginger and YD at the finish. I'm always so happy to see them!

 So, I blazed through the finish line to go say hi.

 I even got to see my buddy Bobby Cordell at the finish. Our friend Julia was there too--with cookies. You know I LOVE chocolate chip cookies! Ginger had a big smile and a protein shake all ready for me, so I was a happy guy!

It was a great day, and I'm pleased with the way my legs felt on the flats and the climbs. Check out the negative splits here. The rest of the day was spent hanging out with good friends. Ginger, as always, made sure I had everything I needed, and seeing her at the finish was some awesome motivation. After we rolled back to Boone and ate some pizza, we chilled out for a while before going to a dinner party with some of her peeps from work. Dinner was awesome, and we even had time for a nice little hike to stretch the legs out. All in all, it was an awesome day! So, another good week of training has come and gone. I'm feeling ready for a week of training in Leadville. I think it'll be cold there. It's been snowing, so checking out the big climb at Hope Pass might be pretty interesting. Stay tuned for a report from Colorado.