Marathon training update: 14 miles

Today's long run was 14 miles, the longest I've run since the marathon on October 17th. And I survived! It helped having two friends with me the whole time, and while it still wasn't easy, it was more enjoyable than I had been fearing. New shoes probably contributed to that, too. My knees were a little achy (I've been slacking on my calcium supplement) but the other issues that have been bothering me lately were kept to a minimum--probably better than they've felt in a few weeks, actually.

Our overall pace was still under 9:00 per mile (8:55 average), which was a pleasant surprise based on the hefty wind and wicked hill we dealt with. We finished in 2hr 5min--faster than my first half marathon. I love seeing progress like that! Tonight I think we're going out to dinner with The H's parents; after burning over 1,000 calories this morning, I just may enjoy a little dessert... And now I'm off to take a nap while the little guy is snoozing, too. 

This is what my splits were like (sorry for the smooshy formatting; this is a copy + paste from the Garmin site):

Split	Hour:Minute:SecondTime	MilesDistance	Minutes per MileAvg Pace
1	00:08:24	1.00	08:24
2	00:08:34	1.00	08:34
3	00:09:00	1.00	09:00
4	00:09:07	1.00	09:07
5	00:09:03	1.00	09:03
6	00:09:26	1.00	09:26
7	00:09:13	1.00	09:13
8	00:09:19	1.00	09:19
9	00:09:05	1.00	09:05
10	00:08:48	1.00	08:48
11	00:08:32	1.00	08:32
12	00:08:32	1.00	08:32
13	00:08:56	1.00	08:56
14	00:08:54	1.00	08:54