I made it! 20 miles! Well, it certainly wasn't a fast 20 miles, it took me 4 hours and 11 minutes. So I can't really call what I did "running", it was really more of a trudge/trot/walk that repeated over and over again, my HR monitor kept telling me that I had to walk. It was a tough especially since I hadn't done anything, and I mean NOTHING, for the past week and a half due to a cold. But I'm glad I did it - I wanted to do a 20 miler before the marathon so that I could be confident that I could at least finish. Now I'm confident that not only will I finish but that there is some glimmer of hope that I'll finish in less than my goal time of 4:45. My run today was at Maffetone HR (~70% of my max). During the race I'm planning to allow myself to run faster so I'm predicting my pace to improve by about 10-15%.

Notes from today's run:
Breakfast: oatmeal w/ coffee
Where: NCR trail (a rails to trails path in northern MD/southern PA), pretty flat (no killer hills like on my 18 mile route), and better on the joints than pavement.
Fuel: Two hammergels, one harvest powerbar, 10 oz. gatorade, 1.5 liters water
Temps: low 30s - snow started at the very end
Clothes/Gear: Enell, tneck, Balt 1/2 mary shirt, orange jacket, hat (didn't wear for most of the run), gloves, red camelback

I was STARVED when I finished. I burned 3440 calories! I just read an article that says for workouts beyond 2 hours that you should consume 2 cals/pound lean body weight every hour. So for me that would be 228 cals/hour x 4 hours = 912 cals. I probably only ate a total of 550 calories which may have caused my extremely slow pace (13-14 mins/mile) at the very end. I think I'll plan on a half a bar or one gel every half hour.

The best part of my run was when I got home Jeff had made a pasta lunch for us! The whole house smelled yummy, mmm, so nice to come home to a nice meal, esp since I was so hungry! Scarfed that down and took a long very hot bath.

Speaking of food - it's time for a snack! Peanut butter mountain bar w/ some decaf! Yummy!