The calm before the storm

I had a running partner today! My husband joined me for about 1.5 miles of my run. He's already improved so much from just a few weeks ago. It was nice to have that time together. The weather is gorgeous, we were on a beautiful trail and the leaves are at their peak. After we were done we went to a local cheese farm, got some amazing artisan cheese, and then went to a farm down the road to get our pumpkins. It was a really nice morning. Not that I plan to stop running after the marathon but it's nice to get a glimpse of what weekends can be like when I'm not on a marathon training schedule.

Tomorrow is 12 miles. I think I'll go back to the trail to do it so I can get some more hillwork in. With so few training runs left I'm trying to vary my courses so I can get a little bit of everything in: hills, speed, and distance. My last "long" run next week will be 8 miles (which was my long run at the beginning of training, it's all come full circle). I will go back to the loop around the lake because it's all rolling hills and I think that will put me in a good place mentally for Central Park.

15 days! Just 13 days until we get to NYC for the weekend! I can't wait to get to the expo on Friday and get my bib and then walk around buying tons and tons of stuff I really don't need but am going to have to have. I haven't seen any "official" merchandise on the NYRR site that has interested me but I read that all the big sponsors, like Asics, do their own NYC stuff. Asics has a slogan, "26.2: To Hell and Back," that would be a cool shirt to get. Anything with a swear word on it is right up my alley.

I'd like to stick around for Marathon Monday (will need to run that past my friend who is staying with me on Sunday night) because I read that's fun too. They'll engrave your medal for you with your name and finishing time and I guess you can pick up your race photos right there. I have no idea how they can process multiple photos for 40,000 runners overnight but it would be cool to come home with one. I haven't had a good race picture yet this year (what a surprise) but I may have to loosen my criteria for what makes a good picture simply for the magnitude of the event. Hopefully I won't look like death crossing the finish and even if my tongue is sticking out (as it usually is in pictures for some reason) or my eyes or shut, or it's the most unflattering angle imaginable, I think I still need to get one to say I was there. :)