Long Ways

Last Sunday I ran 23 miles. NEVER have I run 23 miles. It's a long way. But I had to do it because I have to do these long runs to prepare for my marathon...only 32 days away now. It actually went quite well. I prepared for it in the couple of days before, eating right, drinking enough to be hydrated properly (I had to pee five times during that run since I was so well hydrated), and getting back from a football game in Monroe soon enough Saturday night to allow me to get enough sleep before heading off at 6 am Sunday morning. I ran slowly because the purpose of the long run is to build endurance. Speed in not important. You save the speed work for the shorter runs during the week. So I ran about 3 minutes per mile slower than I would have for the actual race, going at a 3:1 run/walk ratio: run three minutes, walk one minute. I ended up with an 11:07 per mile average, almost dead on three minutes slower than the 8:05-8:15 pace I want to do at the marathon. And I felt very good afterwards. I did some errands and took my niece and her boyfriend out to a quarterhorse ranch that a cycling buddy of mine owns. They seemed to like that a lot.

I also signed up Jonnene to do the 10K run that will be held in conjunction with my marathon up in Washington, DC. We had thought the race was filled with their 10,000 runner limit but a notice came up on FaceBook that fifty spots were open so I grabbed one for her. The nice thing for her is that she'll start her run (at a different location but the same finish line) the same time I do but she'll be done soon enough that she can go back to our hotel, clean up, and come back out to see the last part of my race. She'll be done in about an hour while I'll still have 2 hours and 45 minutes to finish my race...if I do it in the 3:45 time that I want.

The bathroom is coming along and the tile should start going up by Thursday...I hope.

The countertop to the vanity has arrived and was installed.
The undercounter sink was attached, too.

The shower area has had several coats of waterproofing "stuff" applied to the concrete board and surrounding sheetrock. It's almost ready for tiling once the copper pan is attached to the floor. You can also see the two insets on the wall where we will be able to put shampoo bottles and things like soap.
It'll be nice.