The week started out with some not-so-awesome taper-induced soreness. Seriously, my legs felt like lead. Google tells me this is normal and just due to my muscles healing themselves so they will be fresh on race day, but it still worried me.

Tuesday

I went out with the Mt. Juliet Flyers Club for an easy three miles. What’s funny to me is that whenever I go for an “easy” run now, I automatically get into half marathon pace and find it nearly impossible to run slower than that anymore. I guess that’s good? So really this was a three mile goal half marathon pace run, since I averaged 11:15 min/mi for the three miles. No walk breaks, but I felt good and the pace felt easy.

I used this run to test out my gear carrying technique for race day. I figured I would want to carry two gels, my car key, and my phone. I went back and forth on the phone and considered checking it in my gear bag, but then I thought that I was going to be stuck in that corral for up to an hour and I might want to take pictures or text people (or play Candy Crush). So I stuck it in my back pocket.

I will be running in a pair of Oiselle shorts (shocker, I know) that have three pockets. I was honestly quite unaware of one of these pockets until I went to load up everything. I had put my phone in my zipped back pocket and my gels and key in the inside pocket, when I came upon a zipped side pocket as well. Even better! I moved the gels to that pocket, where they will be much easier to get to. I had no issues with the placement of any of the items or any issues with the shorts doing weird things due to extra weight. I do worry about sweat getting to my phone after 13 miles, though, so I may stick it in a baggie before putting it in my pocket (it was dry after three, but I’d rather be safe).

Thursday

Packet pickup and expo day! I met Amanda downtown to pick up all our goodies and to browse around the expo for awhile. I knew Skechers was going to be there, and I wanted to try on some GoRun 3s before ordering them. I ended up buying them because they were $10 off at the expo. I also tried some Nuun (a sugar-free caffeinated Gatorade-type drink) while I was there, but I wasn’t blown away like I expected to be after reading a ton of good things about it. I’ll just stick to water for now.

Later I went out for a final two mile easy run.

Saturday

Race day! Stay tuned for my race report, but it went well. Goals were achieved!