Today we had our 17 mile outing, in my mind this is a significant mental point in our training since we only have 18 and 20 runs after this, and it was rough! I don’t think I ever realized how far seventeen miles can be feel or feel. I know that we still 9 miles away from the full length marathon but its good to have this training under our belt.

The details are certainly not record breaking but I feel good about it. We went out to the 8.5 turn around point in 1:06:40 (7:50 pace) and completed the 17 miles in 2:15:11 (7:57 pace). On the way back I had a 8:24 mile which I think really threw me off as far as timing goes. I had been running with Kelly since the turn around point, when Glenn turn onto chase mode and left us behind, but with about 3 miles left I thought I had enough to pick it up a notch. My right foot arch was bugging me a little bit but didn’t think much of it. The pain increased with about 2.5 miles left and running on my own I lost track of the time. With about a mile left, Kelly came back and we finished a strong last mile at 7:51. Good finish for this distance.

Today my foot is still sore which is something that I am going to have to research a little bit before next week’s run. Can I exercise my flat feet to give them some strength to avoid this pain at the end of the long runs? On another topic, I learned when getting into this kind of distance running, I need to eat a couple of gels not just the one like I have done in the past. So the adventure continues today and we are moving forward.