oakland marathon's coming up quick!

i completed my last long training run today. 20 miles. woah. the hills were fine, tough at times, but you know i love me some hills. the flat part, after we came down lincoln, when we were just running through blocks and blocks and miles of typical oakland scenery...oh dear i started dragging. the nice man i was running with tried to keep me motivated, offering me candy, not letting me stop at red lights when there were no cars around, telling me 'the next water stop has to be just around the corner.' he was awesome, we ran about 15 of the miles side by side, that's huge for me because i don't like running with people.

we started and ended at mile 10 (kilometer 16) on this map:

i treated myself to a vegan club sandwich at the breakroom cafe (place totally rocks!) and then barted home. the bart agent laughed at my leisurely gait ('girl, you're in NO hurry!'), said to come say hi after the race and he'd give me a free ride home. awesome!

i harvested a sweet blister last weekend, and tripled it's size today, radical. blister protection so i could walk home:

next few weeks will be moderate speed and hills training, probably no runs longer than 10 miles, the across the bay 12k on march 21, and that's about it. take 'er easy dude.
almost there, phew! by race day i should also know if i got into the new york marathon, fingers crossed!!