The Steamtown Marathon "strongly discourages" iPods and headphones, so I decided to hit the road without them this morning. I did bring them in my hydration pack, just in case, but I didn't end up using them.
Lately I have been listening to an audiobook during my long runs, but otherwise I have been leaving the iPod at home, so it wasn't a huge adjustment. I had the song, "Holiday Road" stuck in my head about half the time because it's in a car commercial that's on all the time right now. The rest of the time I had "Rain, Rain, Go Away," which was funny because it was nothing but blue skies for my run.
The weather was a bit more cooperative today, much less humid than it has been, but the hills still tried to take me out.
I was hoping to keep my pace under 10:30 since I knew what hills I was planning on running. I even managed to hit an 8:28 minute mile at mile 16 with a little help from a downhill. Other than a couple of the steeper uphills, I felt pretty good most of the time.
Now I'm in the "trust your training" and don't go crazy part of the training cycle, also known as: the taper. I'm looking forward to cutting back on my mileage so I can go into race day feeling strong and well rested.
Apparently I'm running a marathon in 3 weeks - who's idea was that?
Always good to run long without music. Back in 2013 when I ran the NYC Marathon I planned to save my music for when I started to struggle. Sure enough at mile 20 I was fading and got so excited to whip out my tunes. Only the ear buds wouldn't work!!! I was so mad! Needless to say later that night I realized that there was a little slider on the wire that was a volume control and it had slipped down to no volume. There was nothing wrong with my ear buds. Just user error. Enjoy the taper. Embrace the crazies! You are so ready for this marathon. And the best part of your first marathon is automatic PR =)
ReplyDeleteThat headphone debacle would totally happen to me!
DeleteI'm so excited for the taper - I'm pretty good at embracing laziness, so I don't know if I'll get the crazies or not! :)
I really have to have music, especially on a long run. My mind never shuts up and it sometimes gets the best of me. But I wish I could. Do you like audiobooks? I am thinking about trying that. You will do great on your marathon.
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I really like audiobooks, especially for long runs. The big thing for me is making sure I like the narrator's voice - some of them really bug me!
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