Today is a big day for me. My final long run is complete for the 2015 Walt Disney World Marathon.

My final long run, for any race, is always emotional. I just find myself filled with gratitude. Not that this cycle has been without it’s struggles (quitting my job in the middle, just for one!) but I have stayed injury and sickness free and have MOSTLY followed the plan. Not to a T but maybe to an R? Is that a thing? We should make that a thing.

My middle miles, which tend to be the hardest, were made MUCH better by my friend, Kat, who joined me. our conversation made the time fly and I am so grateful!

I had a particularly emotional moment during mile 19. For some reason, my playlists aren’t working on my iTunes so today my only option was to shuffle all the songs. It led to some interesting discoveries – I own some odd music. But it also led to a neat story.

My dad has been gone a little over 5 years and he and I were very close. He was my hero and my biggest cheer leader. About mile 19, “Because He Lives” came on, which is a very old Christian song that my dad adored.

I started to tear up and just as I started to think I could keep it together, a cardinal flew right in front of me. Cardinals are always showing up when I think of my dad and when I’m missing him. Does he send them? Not sure. But somehow God knows they are what I need so they come.

So then I started UGLY crying. Like, can’t breathe, I sound like a Primitine Mist ad from the 70’s ugly crying, and I have to walk. And I’m sobbing. And this sweet, unsuspecting man walking his dog sees me and instantly looks panicked.

He clearly doesn’t know what to do so all he can say is “Merry Christmas?”, just like that, question mark and all, and ya’ll, I swear, I just sort of glared at him and then we went our separate ways.

Poor, sweet man I really am sorry I was rude. You just happened upon a moment.

I have now told this story to two people, my husband and my massage therapist, and they both laughed hysterically. I’m sure that man had quite a story to tell when he got home about the hysterical, glaring runner girl. Yikes.

But still a special moment and it was wonderful to run “with” my dad!

Speaking of my massage therapist, scheduling a 3pm massage for today was maybe the best idea EVER as I feel wonderful! And good news – my fascia and my calves are tight, but my IT band is, in her words, “beautiful” which is evidently a very remarkable and good thing for a marathon runner:).

So no, WE TAPER!! I’ll have all kinds of words on that subject, as “Taper Crazies” are a thing. A serious, not to be laughed at, thing, and my family is about to be victimized by it big time. I’ll try to post some coping strategies.

In case you’ve been following along, at the bottom of this post I’m going to list all installments. I haven’t actually gone back and read them myself, but it should paint a fairly accurate picture of what marathon training looks like “in real life”, as opposed to on the pages of a magazine or in a running book.

And for all of you also training for marathon weekend, I hope this final weekend’s long run effort was amazing for you!! We have all done an amazing job, and our victory lap of 26.2 miles (or whatever distance you’re crazy enough to tackle that weekend) is going to be THE BOMB. Oh, and I’m in corral L so if you happen to see me, please say hi!!

HAPPY RUNNING!

Jen

Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9 (not really an update as this was Wine and Dine week)
Week 10
Week 11
Week 12
Week 13
Week 14