We’ve been in Roanoke for three days.  It’s been filled with cycling (for Scott), running and walking for me, and eating and drinking for both of us.  Lovely!

I’ve gotten a chance to “run” one of the mountains that will be in the marathon and to walk another one.

Thoughts:

• When I ran up Mill Mountain yesterday I was “running” 10:45 – 11:15 pace and felt like I was going to have a heart attack and die on the side of the road.  And that is only the 2nd hardest mountain – apparently Roanoke Mountain (the one we run first) is harder (steeper).
• I typically hate downhills. I don’t know how to run them and find myself putting on the brakes and running slow.  Yesterday the downhill felt AWESOME in terms of recovery – it allowed me to slow my heart rate and recover, even though my pace was still slow.
• I ran 5 miles yesterday – up and down Mill Mountain -and I wasn’t sore today at all.  That was a pleasant surprise.
• Today was a rest day, so I decided to walk up Peakwood (mountain #3).  It was GORGEOUS.  It is through a neighborhood that is very fancy, with gorgeous homes, manicured landscaping and crazy hills. I walked it with a coffee and a scone and at a somewhat leisurely pace and was still huffing and puffing the whole way up.
• Going in to this I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to race the marathon, since I’m definitely not in racing shape.  But I – naively – thought that I would be able to maintain about a 10:00 minute a mile pace.  My recon run and walk of the mountains was a wake up call – it’s gonna be slower than 10:00 min/mile pace.
• My plan: turn the garmin on timer only and don’t worry about pace.  Run and walk entirely by feel – and don’t let myself work hard enough to feel like I’m dying.  Treat it as a 5+ hour jog/walk over some gorgeous mountains and just enjoy the day!  It’s gonna get to about 65 and sunny.  Great day for a run! 🙂

Stay tuned!