Well this is it. What began in April in chilly Philadelphia is about to end - my first running blog. Yes, I'll update after the marathon, but the lead up is pretty much done. I ran today with Kate - it's been lovely doing our Tuesday morning runs and I look forward to many more of those and lots of other runs together and with all my great running buddies after we have recovered from our little run on Sunday. We did 10 minutes warm up and then 20 minutes at marathon pace, followed by 10 minutes cool down. The way out was great - wind at our backs; then we turned around. Oh my, talk about a brick wall. The wind was unbelievable. I sincerely hope it's nothing like that on Sunday. But we had fun and I'm glad I did it. Because of the back injury, I'm stopping the running a little sooner than I normally would have. I'll bike, walk, swim in the next few days and let my back recover as much as possible to give myself as good a chance of doing a good marathon as possible. On Sunday, I expect a sub 4 hour will be tough. I do think my running buddies will do it, though. They are definitely ready. I'll be thrilled if I come close, but of course I'll give it my best shot.