i'm sorry i blinked--did i miss out 8 mile run!?

Last night i had dinner with Christine and we has mozz sticks, i had baked ziti, and it was sooooo good.  Then we went to visit Kathy, and we indulged in a few glasses of wine.  When i woke up on Saturday morning before i had to go to snap, i had a few things on my mind.  Well, really only one thing.  Greasy, cheesy food plus wine makes for a veeeeery happy Kelley in the morning.  If you've been reading my blog you know that I've been having a problem with needing to stop to go to the bathroom in the middle of our long runs.  Well after all the junk i ate last night, i was able to do all that before i even went to work!!  I knew from the start of today, that my run later was gonna be a GREAT one!  :-) 

I got out of snap and was meeting my running family at 1230 at the fishing club.  Unfortunately Mike went running earlier while i was still at work because he had weekend plans.  So, Danny, Moe and Me met at the fishing club and we invited my friend Kathy to come too!  She is a big runner as well, and she keeps a similar pace to what we've been training for, so it was perfect. 
Today's 'Long run' was only an 8-10 mile run.  Ha, we decided on doing just 8 :-)  We were all so excited over this because with the distances we were running for the past few months, this 8 seemed like NOTHING!  I mean, its only one snack time! 

Since I've been working on an outfit for the marathon, i wanted to give my shamrock pants one more go around, and just really make sure they weren't going to work.  I talked to my running crew, and they agreed that they were a bit too big and probably wouldn't be the most comfortable thing.  Bummer!!

We started out going North, me with my crazy pants on!, and were going to run to the end of Asbury Park (and a bit past it since its not far enough).  The wind was quite a bit out of the North, so it was a wise decision to start out that way first, and then it could just carry us back in.  We felt great running north, all four of us, and it was nice to have Kath along as our special guest.  We were all excited about the seemingly shortness of the run that we had a bit more pep in our step.  No wind could ruin our mood!  There were so many people on the boards as well, which is nice to see!  We got to the end of Asbury and went off the boards and into Interlaken, which was 4 miles, in just over 40 minutes.  Perfect :-)
We turned around, and i quickly realized i wore TOO many clothes!  I was dying of heat!  I had on a heavy under armour shirt, a long sleeve t-shirt, and a zip up fleece.  YIKES!  I unzipped a bit, folded my sleeves up, and drank a bit of water the whole way to try to cool myself down!  The wind at our backs definitely helped us get back faster than we got out.  We went one mile on the return trip and it was SNAAAACK TIME!!!!  I was trying out something new this time--GU Chomps.  They are very large, gummy, fruit snacks.  Eww!  I had fruit snacks one other run, and they were very delicious tasting.  These however, were nasty.  I have been talking about how GU is hard for me to get down, and i don't like the way it tastes etc..these GU Chomps should have been perfect--FAIL!  They tasted exactly like GU.  Umm hello company, if people are looking for an alternative to GU, perhaps you shouldn't make everything taste like it--just sayin!  I could NOT be done with those fast enough! 
After snack time, it was a 3 mile stretch to the car.  We had picked up our pace, we were having a really nice conversation, and before we knew it, it was over!  The back 4 miles only took us about 37 minutes.  We were happy with our increase in pace! 
It was definitely decided that my shamrock pants would NOT be marathon pants sadly.  They just are not going to stay in place and comfortable enough for a full 26.2.

Wow 26.2... this is crazy.  With it being only a week away--I'm getting really nervous and overwhelmed.  I read an email they sent us about printing papers out for registration, and i was literally nauseous! 

After our 8 mile run, we looked at each other, and thought--we should go to the gym because it didn't feel like we even had a workout.  The 8-er felt so easy.  Its nice to feel like we are so ready for this race, but it still scaring me a little!!