Hello. How are you doing today?

Me? I am hanging in there. It's been a rough few weeks.

My paternal grandmother had been very ill & eventually died on the 18th. While expected, it was still very sad to lose such a wonderful lady. I had the worst travel experience getting to Erie, PA for the funeral that weekend. It involved 3 plane rides (including 2 small puddle-jumper jets) which were late & a 100 mile drive through rush hour traffic & construction. And that was just one way! I didn't have to worry about the fact that I wasn't able to get in my long run that weekend because I ran enough miles through all the airports (carrying 2 suitcases to boot). Would it kill them to put the same airline in one single terminal??? JEEBUS!!

Still, it was a bit hard getting back into my work-out routine after being gone for so long with the family stuff. I'm doing surprisingly today well considering I ran 21 miles yesterday. It was a long, miserable, hot run, but I finished. It was a lot slower than I wanted, but then again, I included all the time I stopped to chat & eat at all the water stops, which I will NOT do on race day. So if you take that time out, I think it ends up being not so terrible (but still not quite as I'd have preferred).

I had a minor problem with my right calf, a pain in my right knee (from all the hills) & then a bad pain in the ball of my right foot during the run, but all that is fine today. When I got home I took a long ice bath, popped a bunch of ibuprofin, & wrapped my knee with a big ice pack. I was fully expecting to be walking like a 98 year old woman this morning, but other than a little pain/tightness in my quads & hips, I feel great. Hopefully I'll feel the same after the marathon in 3 weeks. *crosses fingers*

Next weekend the mileage goes down to 14. That should be a piece of cake! I can't believe race day is almost here!