NINE DAYS OUT

They FINALLY added some photos from the Portlandathon!

I cannot believe it is only nine days until the race. Just thinking about it gets me anxious and my heart all fluttery. This never happens with a half but always happens with a full. Plus, it will be my first full marathon in three years, so I almost feel like a rookie again! However, I am not a newbie when it comes to this, so I should find some comfort in the fact I have done it before and know what to expect. Still, it is a massive undertaking!

My training for the MCM started in the middle of May. It is honestly hard to believe I've been training for five months straight. Back when I created my plan, it was almost comical how far away the race was and how many miles and long runs I had to do. Now, here I am, almost 23 weeks out of 24 done. Only one short long run and two short midweek runs away from lining up at the start of the People's Marathon. It's satisfying to look back at my training schedule at all the hard work I've done. I've put in the effort, now it is time to reap the rewards!

Training cycle to date.

Altogether, I think this might have been my most successful marathon training period. I hit every run I had scheduled. I did have to rearrange a few times, but I always hit my three weekday runs and weekend long run at the distance planned (spare a few weeks where I purposefully planned only two weekday runs to rest up for a race). Now, most of these runs were of the easy variety, but I did sprinkle in some speedwork here and there. I forgot to note it at times on my spreadsheet, so some of those "easy" runs actually weren't easy.

In terms of my legs/knees though, I don't think I've ever felt better during a marathon training cycle. It's amazing! I remember being a lot more sore during my marathon training cycles, to the point where I was basically some level of sore every day. This time around, I was only sore on select occasions, usually after races or the longest of the long runs. I've said this before, but it bears repeating... I think I had psoriatic arthritis at a low level for years before it flared up badly. To be able to attack this training cycle with that in remission has been a revelation. I hope the "good vibes" continue into the race, but to be honest, I don't think it affected me much during the marathon previously... mostly afterward. I'll probably feel decent for the first 20 and then have to fight like hell for the final 10k as always.

Now that we are within 10 days I can also obsessively look at the weather too. Right now it looks like highs in the mid 50s, lows in the high 30s, and potential rain. So temperature wise it should be fine! Hoping for the rain to hold off and just have overcast skies. Anything from the high 30s to mid 50s with overcast skies is just about perfect marathon weather! Regardless of the forecast, I'll come prepared with a variety of outfit choices so I can make sure I'm dressed for success.

Anyways, I am excited for the race and want it to get here already! I am also going to try to adjust my sleep schedule a flew days before flying out... we'll see if I can manage that. Updates to come.