End of peak training

With three weeks to go before the race, this day marks the end of peak training, and the start of the taper. To celebrate this, I did a last long run of 22 miles. Although only 20 miles were scheduled, I wanted to push it a bit further, inspired by the Runner's world forum fellow Boston runners, who all run long runs over 20 miles. 

I ran the last 20 mile before the Berlin marathon last fall way too fast, only 10 seconds above MP, and was exhausted from that for quite a while. But at that time I needed it to reassure myself that I could do it at that pace. With a bit more experience now, I decide to push the milage and test the waters in the "wall" part (the last 6.2 miles) of the race. I am happy to report that I did not feel the wall in today's run, and comfortably (well, let's say relatively comfortably) ran the last two miles. But I kept the pace easy at 8:25. I did have a nasty big hill at mile 18 though, so that will be good Newton hill simulation.