20-Mile run

Saturday morning I knocked out my longest run thus far this year: 20.3 miles. That's about 3 hours and 20 minutes of non-stop running...
I met early Saturday morning with a few people from my training group. Jim, the "Energizer Bunny", was out of town. I ran with Kenny from our club whom I hadn't met before, and Nina who is new to the club. Kenny has run Marathons in 43 of the 50 states, and is working on completing Marathons in all 50 states! I believe he normally trains at a faster pace than we ran Saturday, but he was nice enough to run with Nina and I for the entire distance. Thanks for the company Kenny!
Nina was amazing. This will be her first Marathon. Two weeks ago her longest run was 12 miles. Last week I believe she ran 16 miles and then 19 miles on Saturday. Big jumps in mileage like that are tough. She not only put in a solid 19-mile run, but at approximately 10-minute/mile pace, which is faster than her normal training pace - great job Nina!
My 20-mile run was at right around 10-minute mile pace - perfect for a long training run. Even though I had put in a fairly quick 8-mile run 2 days earlier, this run felt comfortable. 2 days later, I put in another 9-mile run and other than feeling a little beat-up from all the mileage, that run felt fine as well. I think I should be ready on race-day. Other than a few minor aches and pains, I seem to be free from injury. Next Saturday will be my longest training run of 22 miles, and then 3 weeks of "tapering off" in preparation for the marathon on August 3rd. Stay tuned!