Is "being prepared" enough?

I can't imagine training for months, hard work, long runs, countless blisters--only to run the 26.2 miles in this weather! It really drives home the fact that you can be as prepared as you want to be--but on race day, you are ultimately at the mercy of Weather and the Elements (sounds like a bad rock band, doesn't it?). Good luck to everyone running Boston today. That ivy wreath will be well-deserved--even more so than normal!

On my own home front, Ted and I did a long run Saturday morning, which was almost literally the calm before the storm. Saturday morning was beautiful--it was sunny, warm, and we ran in pants and T-shirts. There were no signs of the looming storm and it felt like the start to a beautiful weekend. We did 10 miles, with hills incorporated in it. It was my first 10 without walking. Ted's first 10 ever. It felt good.

The run was my favorite kind--slow, steady, scenic. I had mapped out a new route and we ran it...it was on back roads where neither of us had been before, and it was adventurous. It was the kind of run I felt convinced marathon training will be easy if it is anything like this, that I could have gone on forever. We averaged about 10:30 minute miles, not great, but steady, so I can't complain. I'm hoping Broad Street will be a bit quicker of a pace--with the smooth course and race-day adrenalin both playing for us.

I had packed the post-it note with the directions for the run in my windbreaker pocket, but stowed my windbreaker about 2 miles into the run when it got too warm for it. I stuffed it behind a bush at a local elementary school, and was about a block away when I realized the post-it note was still in the pocket. We decided to wing it, and figured we wouldn't get lost, but just off track, at very worst. We were fine.

The rest of the weekend was spent painting the bathroom. This week will probably be a lighter week of running, with the Valley Forge 5-mile coming up next weekend. It will be the first race of the season--I'm looking forward to it!