This morning I woke up a little before 5:00 AM to start what would be my longest run before the marathon. I'm currently in Nags Head on vacation, so I thought the change of scenery would be nice. I plotted out my 18 mile course yesterday....the straightest stretch of road I've ever ran, thats for sure. I had one turn, beyond that it was pretty much like running in a straight line for 18 miles. One thing that I hadn't accounted for was wind. I was about a block off the Atlantic Ocean for the entire run, and from start to finish I felt like I was running straight into the wind. It certainly slowed me down a bit, but I still managed to complete the run in just a few minutes over 3 hours. This was certainly the most painful of the long runs, as the miles add up, the knees begin to feel the pain. Around mile 15 I started to feel my knees with each step. I pushed through and ran the entire distance, and after some stretching jumped into the hottub (benefit of being on vacation). That and a couple of Alleve have helped the soreness. The marathon is just over a week away, and there are no more long runs between now and then. Honestly I will probably only run 1 or 2 days between now and the race, and those will be short runs. The last week is going to be more about getting myself in a good position to start and finish the 26.2 on Sunday. Overall I'm really happy with how the training has come along. I had some serious doubts a few months back....taking 2 months off for a stress fracture didn't help. But my body has held up well, and the running has gone even more smoothly than I could have imagined. 8 days and counting........