A Sunday 20 ... and a donut!

Well it's getting really close to the race and I'm getting nervous!  My legs haven't been cooperating with me the last couple of weeks and it's really frustrating!  The Sunday long runs have been going well which is good but it's taking me too long to recover from them and I am missing too many daily short runs.  But this was my last really long run before the December 5th marathon and it felt good.  And I don't consider it a real run until I cross the tracks.

Right before I crossed the tracks and took this picture, my headphones freaked out.  Grrrr!  I was at mile 2 and my left headphone would not work so I had to run the remaining 18 miles with music in only one ear.  Very annoying.  I decided to go the total country route.  I saw a whole lot of this.

And I was feeling really good.  I LOVE running out in the country and it was a perfect running day.  Sunny and cool.  :D

And I even ran past a longhorn cow.  You KNOW you're out in the country when you see a longhorn.  So I gave him the "gig 'em" sign and ran past him.  :)

I planned my run well and at mile 10, I got to the only civilization on the whole run ... a donut shop.  I needed a pitstop anyway so I stopped for a minute.  So much nicer than the outdoor facilities I usually use.  LOL!  Look at that a sink and soap and everything.

And then as I was leaving, my hungry belly got the better of me.  How can you see this and not eat anything?!

And I gave in!  Needed some extra energy for the last 10 miles ya know!!  I had $2 so I bought the biggest donut I could find!  Couldn't be a pig and buy two!!  :P

And right at the table I was standing by I saw this flyer.  Weird ... the only literature in the whole place.  Maybe it's a sign that I should run this race.  I was going to last year but wasn't ready for it and ended up running the Big D half instead.

The energy from the donut was just what I needed and I ran the last half feeling really good.  It was all country roads all the way home.

I'm so happy my last long training run is over.  Sometimes I feel they do more harm than good.  But I know my legs need to get ready for 26.  Average pace was pretty slow:  9:34.  But race pace is just a minute/mile faster.  I know I can do that for 20.  It's those last 6.2 I worry about!!  

Next Sunday is just a 14 mile run.  However ... like a dummy I signed up for a 5k that night.  Just couldn't pass it up because it's a really cool run at night through a huge display of Christmas lights.  Very neat!