Overhead excitement to mark 15 miles

Hello marathon fans!   Evan and I finally made it to the 15-mile mark on Saturday!  We took about 2 hours, 45 minutes.  The goal for the long run is to finish and push endurance without regard to time.  Our running coaches from Team for Kids are encouraging a long run pace of approximately 1-1.5 minutes slower per mile.  So, we are in a good place, though we are working in more speed training this week on shorter distances.

Saturday's 15 miles were accompanied by the blue angels flying overhead (I totally failed at taking pictures, but I love this photo, from the J. Parker's FB page).  The air & water show was in full swing, so we altered our route a little to detour through Lincoln Park instead of home along the lake front.  The airplanes overhead were actually pretty inspiring and great entertainment along the way.

On Sunday I cross-trained by going to Ikea and moving/constructing furniture.  That probably counts as a rest day, but I was still recovering from Saturday and definitely felt like it was enough physical activity for the day.  Check back for a post of our shiny new TV and the bench it lives on.

Monday I had a goal of 7 miles on the calendar, but ended up splitting it into 4-mile runs both Monday and yesterday because work got a little crazy on both days, so I didn't have as much time as I'd hoped.  I've been doing evening runs during the week and yesterday the lake was just lovely.  I'll bring my phone tonight to capture some evening action shots.

What keeps you going on your long runs?