8 Mile Taper

The good news is that today was the last long run before the marathon. Ironically, that's the bad news too!

I ran from Memorial Park with Stephanie, Laurie, and Randy. We started at the 6 and the weather was very nice. It has been very nice to train with Stephanie's group. Most of the group is running the Chicago Marathon next Sunday. I realized today that it seems like I have much more confidence when running with this group. They're all better and more experienced runners than I am but it seems like they care that I do well. I hope I can run next Saturday as comfortably and confidently as I usually do when running with my regular Saturday group. I also wish each of them the best in their marathon next weekend. I know they've trained hard for a long time and I'm sure they'll do well.

We rolled up 8 miles this morning.


8.11 miles @ 8:19 (1:07:29)


By complete coincidence, I met a guy named Dirk in the parking lot after our run. He has run the St. George Marathon seven times. He's not running this year due to injury. He gave me several things to think about: Veyo Hill is huge ("bigger than any hill on any other marathon"); start out slow; there are places on the course where you can take advantage of the downhill grade; don't try to run an even pace - it will really screw you up; seriously consider wearing sunglasses; among other things.

I guess that's about it. I picked up my parents from the airport and went to Cameron's cross country meet. Unfortunately I just missed the JV race he was in. Incredibly, he shaved one minute off his 5K PR! He had been saying throughout the week that he felt like he was going to have a good race. Boy was he right!