15K (9.3 miles)

That was the distant for this morning's race, which was the last in the training series building up to the mini marathon in Indy on May 8. Ben and I ran the race this morning along with several others from the area.

Ben had a great run! His longest training run coming into the race was 8 miles, which he did last Tuesday. He was in new territory today, but he handled it very well. He ran a smart race, pacing himself perfectly. He finished strong (in the rain that crept in on us) in 1.21 on the nose. That works out to be about an 8.40 pace, I believe. That's pretty good for a newbie to running and for a big kid. Needless to say I am very proud of him.

My run went well also. I toured the course in 1.07.45, which is about a 7.17 pace. The significant thing for me is that it is about 3 minutes faster than I ran the same course last year. It's just another sign that I am on track to have a good marathon, Lord willing! I really only wanted to run under 1.10, but I was relaxed and had the good companionship of Ryan Roberts. He ran with me the whole way, after warming up with a 7 miler! He was just out for a good long run. He got it! I ended up with 16 miles total today. I warmed up and cooled down with John Heatherly. Our cool down was just that: 5 miles in the rain and wind. Cooled me off.

Three weeks to the big day! Now the tapering begins. Lighter runs, less milage, and less frequency are in order for the next 3 weeks. I will throw one more 20 miler in next Saturday. Other than that there won't be anything too hard. Now I am just praying for good weather on the 24th; good weather would be 40s or 50s and no wind or sun.