My Slowest Marathon To Date

I am excited about the 50th Annual Fairbanks Equinox Marathon.

Today, I did my last long run, a hard 12.38 up and down the minimal hills that my hometown can offer at an average pace of 10:20.  Nothing to win medals for sure, but given that it included walk breaks to eat fuel, it's been a long time since I'd done something that demanding outside of a race with just me and my watch.  I felt good, and ready to meet the minimal joint goals I share with Arvay.

Also, I am not alone.  They're proudly predicting a total number of runners (including relayers, ultras(!), and marathoners) of over 1,000 for the first time ever. They've even had to move a relay exchange to accommodate the large numbers.

While I'm excited, I've also been very concerned about my lack of preparation.  But, conveniently, I am an obsessive data collector.  So I recently entered this marathon's training data in the table that contains the other 6, and I was pleased to learn two things:

1.  My weekly average miles for 18 weeks is 23.3 miles.  Nothing close to the 40.3 I averaged for the last year's CIM.  But, (happily!) not much less, than the 24.7 miles per week I averaged for the San Francisco Full Marathon in 2008 with E2.

2.  For the total of each week's long run mileage, I'm actually not in last place for this one.  For Coeur d'Alene, I totaled 210.2 of long runs over 18 weeks.  For this race, I've got 211.85 miles.  Of course, for CDA, I also totaled about 140 more miles over the 18 weeks than what I've put in here, overall, but really, that number makes me feel comfortable.  That race was entirely at altitude with lots of ups and downs like the ones I'll find at the top of this race.  I'm actually less under-prepared than I thought...

So, yeah.  Wish me (and all my fellow Fairbanks Equinox Marathoners) good luck!  (Also, note that I fully expect this to be my slowest marathon by a *very* *very* long shot!).