Cheesesteaks, Soft Pretzels, and a Race

It’s tapering time. After an extraordinarily long training cycle (24 weeks) that started in June, the Philly Marathon is this Sunday. If all goes well, my goal is to beat my last PR of 3:59:50 AND not feel like a heart attack victim those last few miles. My stretch-goal would be to average a 9:00/mile pace which would bring me in around 3:55. My super-stretch-goal would be to have a negative split. A negative split is where you run the second half of the race faster than the first half; I’ve yet to pull this off during a marathon because I usually poop out and slow down between miles 20-26. A few of our other friends are also running Philly so it should be fun. No matter how the race goes, we’ll be celebrating with cheesesteaks and beer afterwards. This is why I run.