Today was a good test day to see how far I could run. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately as I'll explain in a moment, I didn't run as far as I could. Recently I've been focusing more on running than on biking. That's because since I succesfully finished the 10k on October 30th, I've been thinking about running the Seattle Marathon on November 27th, only two and a half weeks away. I wanted to run about 20 miles today because if I could do that than I wouldn't have a problem finishing the marathon. I've only run one so far -- the Country Music Marathon in Nashville in April, 2003.

The weather forecast called for rain showers in the afternoon so I thought I'd be fine if I started before noon. I went outside about 11:30 and it started raining and it was windy windy -- that's why it felt colder than 52 degrees (the temperature posted on Yahoo Weather). For a moment I thought about going to the gym instead but decided to give it a try because the conditions might be very similar during the marathon. Seattle is known for notoriously bad weather in November.

I started off the same path as I've ran the last couple of 10 milers: down to Elliot Bay and then all the way to the marina and back. I planned on doing that twice. However, when I got down to the bay it was very windy with gusts up to 25mph probably. And it was raining, although not very hard. I started it out slow - about an 8:30 min./mi. pace, which is what I'd in a marathon. It's something I read in a running book about running a marathon -- start out slow. It definitely worked for me in 2003.

I felt good throughout, meaning that my breathing was fine and I wasn't feeling tired and all. I began to pick up the pace gradually and was running at about 7:30 pace 4 miles in. There were two things that bothered me however -- my underwear, which was wet by then, was rubbing my inner thigh (I should have put powder on before going out) and the tongue of the right shoe was causing discomfort on the right side of the top of my foot, a problem I've had for a bout a week now in addition to the achilles tendon.

At 10 miles I decided to keep running instead of turning back. I went about half a mile past the ferry terminal along Puget Sound and turned around. At that point, if I ran straight back home, it would have been about 13.1 miles. That's what I decided to do. I didn't want to go to far and perhaps cause an injury from which I wouldn't be able to recover by marathon time. Part of it is that it was easier to stop running than go another 7 miles, but I think that I made the right decision. This wasn't the marathon, and I'll save my energy for then.

So as of now, unless I get injured, I will run the marathon on the 27th. :-) By the way, my legs did of course feel stiff after running, but I only felt slightly tired. So I think I'm in good enough shape -- it'll just be a question of whether my bones and muscles can make it through 26.2 miles.

Total: 13.1 mi Run (1:48:46; 8:13min./mi. pace); 1354 cal.; 143 lb.