I was at the Chip Time Results site this morning, and decided to check out upcoming events that Denise might be interested in.  The first thing I saw was that the Waterloo Marathon is almost at the top of the list.  It’s less than two weeks away.  I’ve got butterflies already!  Can’t wait!

I finished the 16th week of my training with a two hour run through the pouring rain and heavy wind.  It really wasn’t that much fun, although splashing through the puddles felt good.  I would call this a “character-building” run.  Nobody else was brave enough to be out running, and I actually only saw a handful of pedestrians.  The last 5 km was right into the wind, gusting up to 60 km/h.  Just two weeks remain until the race.

Running through the pouring rain wasn’t something I thought that I would be able to do. Yes, I ran through the winter, but snow doesn’t get you wet the same as rain.  Yesterday, I went for a 19 km run in the rain.  That’s about two hours of drenching that I endured.  At first, I went out and then came back inside.  I convinced myself to be brave and go back out.  After all, it’s just water, right?  So I ran around the city and got soaked.  I ran through puddles with authority.   The temperature was barely above freezing, so I got cold too.  The best part was my mittens: they got so wet that I was able to squeeze my fists and make water run out, every couple of minutes.  In the end, I conquered the rain, and it was awesome.  Then the rain stopped ten minutes after I came home.  Mission accomplished.

Yep, another Thursday, another easy run. Almost 5 degrees today, but still too cool for shorts for me. 8 more runs left until the big day.

Wednesday runs are great. I push just a bit harder in the middle section and then coast home. This was the first real taper day today, 3 km less than last week. 18 days to go.

Hey, look, I went running again today! Really not much to say. Cooler weather has returned again, and it was kinda windy on the way back home.

When I run around town, I run around the town. This is my longest training run, and the longest I will run before the real deal on May 1. 32 km of goodness. I made it back home before the hail came down, which I’m very glad about.

I love the intensity of Wednesday runs. My energy level was low today, so getting through the 6 km tempo section was a challenge, but I felt great afterwards. I love the feeling when I come down from that level, it’s like I’m just floating on air.

As I was wrapping up the Around the Bay race a week and a half ago, one of the thoughts my mind drifted to in the last 5 km or so was the list of things that I do now that I never thought I would do before I started running.  It came back to me this morning as I was preparing for my 8 km run, and I tried something I have never done before.

Putting duct tape on my foot to avoid blisters.

Honestly, it seems like a pretty weird thing to do.  Yes, I have had good results with BodyGlide in the past.  It’s more of an experiment, really.  I don’t see why it wouldn’t work though.

When I ran in Hamilton, I forgot to grease up my foot, and it rewarded me with a monster blister that took a week to heal.  It could be a bad fit, improper lacing or something beyond my control.  What is important is that I have a 32 km run coming up this weekend and I don’t want a repeat performance.  So I’m going to try this duct tape thing this week and see how it goes.

This week’s long run was shorter than the race last week at 22.5 km, but it seemed harder because I was running alone. I ran the half marathon course again this week, and it was nice to do it without snow blocking the way. Just four weeks to go until the marathon.