Surprise!

Yesterday's run sucked, big time. I was supposed to do 21 miles after a Friday night of homemade Mexican leek soup, yoga, no alcohol, lots of water and an early bedtime.

Instead, Friday night we had to celebrate. We went for sushi with friends to celebrate E's resignation and F's new job. It was fun and delicious. But, we started the meal with sake. Then the servers forget to bring our *complementary* miso soup and salad (you know, the few bits of the meal that could actually pass for somewhat healthy). I joined the celebration and toasted and sipped on sauvignon blanc, all the while gorging on sushi and finishing the meal with deep fried green tea ice cream (hell yeah!). Then, E & I caped off the night watching the weird but clever and fun Donnie Darko 'til 1:30 AM. So, well, I had accepted that my long run was not going to be exactly what I'd hoped.

Saturday AM, the weather cooperated and was gorgeous, but I thought it would be a good idea to sleep in because I was relaxed. So, there I was, leaving after 9 AM for 21 miles. Around mile 10, without any tree cover for the 3rd or 4th consecutive mile, in the 70F sun, I realized that the prior night's festivities were not exactly helping me out.

So, I cut it a bit short, slowed down, altered the loop to find more shade, and at mile 18.5, I came back in the house with the intention of asking E if he'd like to walk the remaining 2.5 with me. Or maybe I'd run one more mile and he could walk the last 1.5.

Instead, I sat my exhausted and sweaty ass down in my chair, leaned my head back and admitted that the next time I was getting up was to go to the shower.

So, here I am, 5 long runs left 'til the marathon, and dealing with the realization that I am in the kind of shape where I realize I have to slow down to avoid doing another run from hell. The good news is, when I arrived home it was 75F, which is hotter than it likely will be in Nagano. The bad news is that it will be significantly more humid, and, as I learned in Miami, humidity kills me.

So, truth be told, I'm suspicious that I'm going to be in good enough shape to finish this marathon anywhere near my original time goal.

Thankfully, I've got a half-marathon on deck for next weekend. So, I guess I'll push the midweek runs this week for speed and see how I perform in the race, and from there, I'll be setting my new marathon goal (and likely adding some buffer time for the humidity).