Mr. Neon and I are six weeks into marathon training. We’ve got 10 weeks left. Prairie Fire has a countdown on their website. You have to scroll down to get to it. I’m a glutton for punishment, so I hit it up once or twice a week just to freak myself out for a few moments. Right now it says there are 68 days 19 hours 57 minutes and 25 seconds left.

I tend to hit walls in training. I think I’ve hit one this week. I’m tired. I’m tired of getting up early to run. It’s only three out of seven days a week, but I like sleep! I’m tired of the little nagging things that hurt. My toes are still giving me trouble. After my 14 miler on Saturday, the big toe on my right foot hurt. Inside my shoe it felt like the nail had peeled back. I was scared to take my shoe off. Of course, it felt worse than it looked. It’s not black, but it’s swollen and slightly warm to the touch. I’m going to soak it in epsom salts later tonight.

So 14 miles…longest run EVER. I did so well until mile 12 and then I was just done. I had no juice left. It was hot and HUMID. I didn’t get started until nearly 9am…that was dumb. So I walked and ran and walked and ran my happy little butt back to the car. I experienced my first “omg I forgot to start my Garmin” in the last .05 of the last mile. I was waiting for the momentous beep for my mile 14 split and it never came. I finally looked down and realized I hadn’t restarted my watch at the crosswalk! So I actually ran 14.05 miles. Take that! We didn’t have anyone to watch the boys so we Ro-Sham-Bo’ed for who got to run outside and who was stuck with the TM. I “won” and got to run outside. Shout out to Mr. Neon who slogged through 14 miles on our treadmill!

This is a bit of a step down week, and I’m grateful. My feet are tired. My quads are still sore from Saturday. And I need to lay off the hard root beer for the sake of my stomach and my head. Oh, and I’ve got a sunburn from Saturday’s long run and Sunday’s afternoon at the waterpark. Yeah…I’m whining. Tomorrow’s track workout is 6×800. The tempo run is long, but slower. 1mi Easy, 6mi at long tempo, 1 mi Easy. The long run is only 10 miles. Since when did 10 miles become associated with the word ONLY. Yeesh…