Hooray, the "long" runs are done. In the past 3 weeks, my running bud and I did 3 20+ milers. In the awesome heat and humidity of the Washington DC area no less. And now that the heat has broken, we're starting our taper. Almost Laurel and Hardy  timing.

In spite of that, I don't really feel ready. Mind you, my goal is simply to finish. Well, I guess I have two goals -- the stated goal of finishing and the unstated goal (which I whisper to myself) of maybe breaking 4:30. But in spite of 3 20+ mile training runs, I dread the last 6 miles of the marathon. It has taken every week of training to finally get a hydration plan working. I want to do at least one more 23 miler to feel sure I have that right. But we're tapering; the idea of cutting back just seems counter-intuitive: why not run another long run? I mean, I understand the reasons -- heal thy injuries, build thy glycogen stores; get thy rest... It just runs counter. Maybe I need to think of the MCM itself as the next long training run!