10 weeks to go

Here I am, 10 weeks away from the Chicago Marathon!! I guess I didn't do a very good job of catching up from July 4th until now.
My long runs have been going quite well.  I ran 15.5 miles this past Saturday at a 9:29 average pace.  Most of my miles were in the low 9s until the last 1.5 which were 10:22 and 10:25.  I was beat!  My plan called for 15 miles, the group run was an 8 mile out and back course.  Nobody else was turning around at 7.5 miles so I decided to go all the way to the end since I ran 14 last week and a 2 mile increase would be fine.We took a wrong turn in town and ended up cutting a half mile off; the others went around the block to get the half mile but I called it quits because I was beat. 
Last week my 14 mile run came in at a 9:36 average pace and the week before 12.5 miles came in at 9:47.  I was running with my friend, Erika, and we were running along in the high 8s to low 9s.  It was Art Fair weekend in Ann Arbor which means quite a few streets downtown are closed off and there are hundreds of artists with booths.  Art Fair wasn't open yet when we were running in the morning and the course wound through Art Fair before heading out of town and then came back through on the way back.  As we were heading back into the Art Fair area, I tripped on an electric cord that was laying across a street.  I fell hard, I scraped my left knee just a little.  I was more embarrassed than anything.  After I fell, I never really got back up to the pace I was running, I really slowed down.  We missed a turn and ended up running an extra 1/2 mile. 
My Monday tempo runs have also been going well.  Last Monday, I ran 7 miles at 8:51 average pace.  The week before I ran 6.3 miles at 8:43 average pace at 8pm after working a 12 hour day shift. 
I've been doing speedwork with the triathlon group on Wednesdays.  Last Wednesday, we did 6 1200s with a 400 recovery.  The first 4 came in under 8 minute pace, the last 2 at just over 8 minute pace.  I can live with that!  Oh, did I mention that it rained the whole time and I was soaked and miserable?  The week before we did two 2 mile repeats in a park.  My first 2 miles were 7:53 and 7:46.  The second 2 miles were 7:57 and 7:56.  Pretty good for me!  I was barely moving by the time we got back to where our cars were parked which was almost a mile from where the repeats end.
After all these tempo runs, speed workouts and 9:30s long runs, running a marathon at a 10:15 pace should be easy, right!!  I can only hope! 
Two weeks ago, I did a virtual 5K.  It was organized online by "From Fat to Finish Line", a group of 12 people who have all lost at least 100 lbs and formed a Ragnar relay team and a documentary is being made about them.  It was a Sunday which is supposed to be a short, easy recovery run.  I ran my 5K in 26:26 for an 8:32 average pace!!  Oh well, it was fun! This is the picture/results I posted on their Facebook page:

virtual 5K

I was standing behind my car because that made the sun behind the camera; I didn't intentionally take my picture next to my 26.2 sticker!  I noticed it later when I was getting the picture ready to post to their page!  I made my virtual race bib number -35 because I lost 35 lbs in 2005. 
So, that's about it.  This week is one of my favorite events - the Red Carpet Run.  It's on Wednesday night.  I call it prom night for runners!  The theme is formal wear.  I ran it last year with my friend, Erika.  We had a blast.  Erika and I are going "over the top" this year!  We are wearing long dresses that we found at thrift shops.  Mine is sapphire blue and is sparkly!!  I'm so excited!  

Runner Nerd