15 Miles

I ran 15 miles today and it felt like a long distance training run. I'm running the Yonkers Marathon in 8 weeks and now is the time I put in the work. I've been doing an O.K. job with training this year. I find myself breaking a marathon into 3 parts. The first 9 miles, the second 9 miles and the last 8.2 miles. The first 9 miles always feels like I'm just warming up. I go at an easy pace for me. The second 9 miles is about trying to keep up the steady pace I want to go at. And then the last 8.2 miles end up feeling like a battle of attrition. When I've run a marathon well, those last several miles are like a countdown to the finish. My main goal is to finish under 4 hours and a training run like this morning will help to finishing the marathon strong.