To du or not to du

I was just reading over my last post, and I must say to all my readers, (ha!) forgive me, I have a penchant for whining. Life really is good. Friday morning I rolled out of bed and got ready to head out on my big 20 mile excursion. Things started pretty well, but I didn't feel fast of light on my feet at the beginning. Still I managed miles in the 10:3o range, which is right where I want to be for the marathon. Life was fun for miles 2-11 but then things got a bit painful. Mile 12 was bearable, as were 13 and 14. At 15 I knew I was going to have a painful finish. 16 and 17 were difficult and the last 3 were just not much fun at all. My calculations were a bit off, and so I got home and my GPS said I had only gone 19.57...I guess I could have run another .22 out and .22 back, but I was beat so I just went inside. I walked the whole last quarter of a mile so there was no real need for a cool

Sadly, that was my best 20ish mile run ever. I didn't fear that death was approaching like I did on my 20 miler in May of '04, and I have recovered pretty quickly. This week is a "recovery" week where I am going to take down the mileage a bit before the last big push to marathon Saturday.

This Saturday I am still up in the air about doing the off-road duathlon that I did last year. It was lots of fun, but my mountain bike has a problem with the shifters and I don't want to pay the money to get it fixed. these are some pictures of me and my bike and my muddy, bloody legs after last year. Good Times!