My 12-mile "taper"

The Angel: "Alex, you have trained enough this year. It's time to start winding down. Get your rest. Stay out of trouble. Prepare to enjoy the Marathon in 2 weeks."

The Devil: "I made you sick with a cold, then a cough, which has lasted you a month. I threw at you three projects requiring you to travel to Mexico & Pittsburgh. I made sure that your vacation in Spain would throw you off your running schedule. I made you gain 6 pounds, so that you would run slower. And now? Now you are out of shape, and now you must NOT taper by running super-long distances, like runing 20 miles as often as possible, in the hopes that you will damage yourself too soon before the race. This should screw you over permanently."

Seems like the devil had a lot more to say than the angel...

Yesterday, I decided I would run 10+ miles, and again today. The kids went to the inhouse babysitting program. Me? I decided it was too nice outside to be cooped up indoors. I went ahead and decided to run to my favorite place in the world. Port Washington, NY.

The hills north of New Hyde Park are a real killer. And I was not looking at going too slow either. The weather was a breezy, but warm and humid 79 degrees. And the bright sun was awesome, albeit hot.

The lowest point of my run was running thru the back of the Macy's Parking lot where the trucks load and unload in Manhasset. The high point was getting to my halfway mark at Hewlett Lane, in the best part of Port Washington, Flower Hill (Sands Point much too isolated, and pretentious---sorry, ultra-rich folks...).

I left LA Fitness at 12:08 PM, and between the necessary stops (ie. red lights), and the 6-minute stop at Whole Foods Market for my XXX flavored Vitamin Water, I got back to LA Fitness at 2:00 on the dot. It was 12 miles, but it felt more like 13. The breeze was a bit too strong, and it definitely weakened me, along with the sun.
Still, it took me 1 hour and 42 minutes to go 12 miles, and that's better than a sub-4 hr pace for my upcoming marathon.

Will I break the 4 hour mark at this year's NYC Marathon? Absolutely not. But we'll see which Alex does show up on that day. I have already taken Friday, November 2 as off, to go to the Javits in the afternoon. I have also taken Monday & Tuesday, November 5 & 6, to rest, and appreciate myself for a year long program of training.

I started running 3 years ago and I'm still having a lot of fun doing it.
God Bless me for giving me the ability to do this!