Day 81-83: Run, Cross Train, Rest.
By Sarah. Filed in Marathon Training Posts |
I already mentioned that I made the 20 miler and I wish I had more to tell. It wasn’t crazy strenuous and I didn’t have to mentally push myself to go forward, it just felt fine. Waking up/running at 6 wasn’t ideal, as I’m not great with mornings, but I think that helped. I literally wasn’t fully awake until maybe mile 10. I was so excited that I was going to get to see the sunrise for the first time in a while, but no luck – it was overcast/no sun. Even so, it was pretty neat to wake up with the city. When I first started it was pitch black and no-one was on the roads but after 3 hours, Boston was alive. It was also kind of fun to run down storrow drive and be going faster then the cars stuck in traffic were 
This run was really great because it increased my confidence for the marathon. I know I’m going to make the 26 miles, but I just don’t want to be limping/in terrible pain after. I went to work after this 20 miler! It’s only 6 more miles than that. I know I’ll feel it but I don’t think it’ll knock me out for days or anything.
After the run, and work, I went to Hartford to visit Simon and we had dinner with my Dad. We went to this place Nuellis that used to have bocce ball when I was a kid, but it has since been taken down – bummer. It was really nice to see my dad (he had this sweater on that he used to fit into in the 70s and now fits again, and he looked totally cool!). Although it isn’t great to have a long distance boyfriend, one of the perks of Simon being in CT is I get to see him and my Dad a lot more. After dinner we worked on our halloween costumes – we were music pirates (the Pirate Bay pirates) which basically meant pirate outfits with CDs all over us and pirate bay logos etc. Making the costumes was a blast though, as we basically got to color and listen to the beatles for several hours. Man, coloring is so soothing. We were up early on Saturday (well early-ish) to drive to Silver Lake Conference Center, a camp Simon (and my brother) went to when they were little. The camp also happens to be in Sharon, CT where my Dad grew up, so I have a strong bond/feeling with that part of the state. We drove right by my Dad’s old house where I spent every Christmas and lots of summer day growing up. We spent the day removing trash, and scraping/sanding old paint off a lodge. It was a lot of fun, minus the pouring rain. I counted this as cross training since we were basically doing manual labor for 6 hours. I liked it for about 5.5 hours and then the last half hour I had to chip paint in the rain, standing under a gutter which poured more rain on my head, straddling a sewage hole that smelled disgusting, and climbing up a shaky ladder. Isn’t volunteer work always so exciting.
The rest of the weekend at camp consisted of a pumpkin carving contest (we made the sweetest pirate pumpkin ever- SMS was really good with that knife!), dress up dinner, songs, games, more volunteer work, and some praying (did I mention it is a Christian camp). I was a bit nervous going in, not knowing what to expect, but it was just amazing. I like church in general so the praying didn’t freak me out (and it wasn’t very often) but mostly it is just this magical place where everyone loves each other and respects each other and kindness is abundant. I can’t wait to go back!
