Covenant Health Knoxville Marathon - 10 Days and Counting

Excluding my training race reports, I haven't blogged much about my preparation for the 10th annual Covenant Health Knoxville Marathon. Maybe because my mid-week training doesn't resemble a typical marathoner's, or maybe because it never quite felt real to me. With less than 2 weeks until race day, stuff just got real!!

I've been blessed to have an excellent group of training buddies accompanying me for most of my long runs. Between races, organized group runs, and impromptu meet ups, I've not done a single long run alone.

We've chatted the miles away, kept one another from going out too fast, and encouraged one another when the going got tough. Johnny experienced a Half Marathon PR at Strawberry Plains. Amy's 5K PR came during Barley's 5K (yes, the one where we were trying not to push too hard.)

Brad, Amy, and Sharon will each be experiencing 26.2 for the first time on March 30th. Johnny and I are going for PRs at the distance and given our current training paces we both have a good shot at it.

The race is also given me the chance to meet up cyber running friends. Kelly & I met Jay for the first time back in October. This time around the 3 of us hope to discover if Pete is really an IT dude from Michigan, or actually some chick from Montana.

I've spent the last 2 years working on speed and endurance. I've proven to myself negative splits and starting slowly does actually work the way "they" say it does. I've obsessed with pace calculators and making a race strategy. Now I'm excited to join my friends at the start line to finish up another epic adventure.