The marathon, 20 miles of hope followed by 6.2 miles of Truth.

The title of this post is credited to Gordo Byrn. Truer words may never have been spoken.

OK. I've been nursing a case of shin splints for the past 2+ weeks so I really wasn't sure what to expect from today's long run. The training schedule called for 17 miles with 14 at goal marathon pace (GMP). I wasn't sure how my shin would react to fast running so I started this morning deciding to totally play it by feel. If the shin hurt, then I would abandon the GMP run and just run a slower paced 20 miler (or as many miles as the shin would allow). I ran 2 warm up miles and then hit the accelerator. I decided to run at a cautious 7:40 pace (which would translate to a 3:20:00 marathon). It was difficult from the beginning but it was more about trying to get my wind than about any shin pain. I started repeating my mantra, "embrace the pace" and after a couple of miles I had settled into a comfortable 7:30-7:40 range pace.

I was pushing right along through mile 9 of the 14 at GMP when all of a sudden fatigue reared its ugly head. I faded to around 7:44 pace while I mentally battled it out inside my head. On the one hand, 9 miles at GMP is pretty good considering how much I've had to back off of my training recently to deal with the shin splints. On the other hand, my pace hadn't fallen "that" bad, so I decided to keep pushing and see if I could still end the run on pace overall. I told myself that this was perfect practice for when I'm tired at the end of a race. A perfect opportunity to push myself through the miles even though my brain was telling me to slow down. I fought through the final 4 miles averaging 7:47-7:50 pace, even resorting to a trick I learned where I count each step, 1 through 30, over and over again, for the last 2.5 miles. The counting actually makes me concentrate on running instead of thinking about how tired I am, how bad I feel, etc. It works.

So I felt pretty good about sticking with the run and toughing it out and then when I got home and did the math, it turns out I averaged exactly a 7:39 pace for the GMP portion of the run. That's what I'm talking about. It's slow compared to my 7:20 pace half marathon that I ran last month, but I'll take it. Checking my training log, I ran the same run at 7:28 pace last fall while training for my BQ (Boston Qualifier) in the Columbus Marathon. So I'm not on pace for a PR (personal record) at Boston, but as long as my shin holds up I should be able to run a respectable race. As for today, the shin held up just fine.

Here are my GMP splits from this morning; 7:40, 7:42, 7:25, 7:36, 7:27, 7:35, 7:33, 7:31, 7:36, 7:44, 7:50, 7:47, 7:50, 7:47. Total time: 1:47:12, average pace 7:39.

I feel this is one of the most important training runs of the entire 18 week schedule. When you nail it, you go into race day full of confidence. I wouldn't say that I nailed it but I'm a lot happier now than I was this time yesterday. Five weeks until Boston. Two hard weeks of training and then a three week taper. If I can hit a solid 20 miler each of the next two weekends, I'll be good to go.