Yesterday was a mock marathon. I woke up 2 hours before my long run, ate more than I normally would, prepped more than normal bringing two gels and stashing some water along the route and got ready for 22 miles.

I met Seebo, Luke, Jenny and Cassi, in front of the Art Museum at 8:00 for a long loop almost all the way my house and back to the Art Museum. 22 miles had me a little nervous, you want things to go well on the last really long run before taper. Luckily they did. The pace bounced above and below 8 minute miles the entire way. We made a couple water stops, I popped my gels as planned and just took a nice long run with some friends.

We landed back on Kelly Drive with four miles to go and I was feeling great. I thought about accelerating to marathon pace for the last four but my goal was 3 hours of running and it would just force me to run more distance. I did pick up the pace in the last mile, slowly accelerating until I was at tempo by pace in the last 100 meters. I didn’t even feel the normal ache that sets in as soon as you stop a run that long.

My watch read 2:56 so after chatting for a while with Seebo I ran the 0.5 miles back to my car, this even felt good. 23 miles in 3:03.