He's one of us!

In the past when I've trained alone, Bryan always says to me when I get home from my long run (usually still in is PJs sipping coffee...thanks babe!) "I just don't know how you do it?!?!" Well, this weekend he was able to stop asking that question as he officially became one of us!

I always say that in my mind, an 18 mile long run is really the deciding distance of marathon training. Once you can run 18 miles, you can be pretty sure that you will finish the marathon. Even if you have to death march it in for the last 8.2 miles, you will finish. Anything beyond 18 miles for a long run is definitely good training, but 18 is kind of a milestone (no pun intended!)

18 windy miles from Boston to Newton to Wellesley back to Newton and then Boston and Bryan is now officially a distance runner! We had a great run and we really seem to be perfecting our negative split. That or maybe we both just want to be done that we unconsciously pick up the pace in the last 5 miles along the Newton Hills! As his coach, I couldn't be more proud of him :)

Of course I documented the whole thing:

Before

After

Much after....at a Superbowl party (many miles of the run were spent talking about all the food we'd eat at the party!)

As far as crossing over to the dark side? He's getting there. He did comment that his vanilla Gu tasted pretty good :) Welcome to my world honey!