I just finished week 16 of my marathon training plan. My long run for the week is supposed to be 12 miles. Last Sunday, however, I ended up running almost 13 miles–12.95 miles to be exact. This is almost a half marathon!

Anyway, the run was kind of tough, as I didn’t feel strong that day. The route I took would take me almost through all of Manteca. At about 4 miles, I hit my first hill–the overpass over highway 120.

It was busy that morning as I probably had to stop around six times at intersections for a green light to cross.

At around mile 8, I started to feel body aches…mainly around the knee and hip area. Note that I never felt short of breath at all.

At around mile 9 I hit my second hill–the overpass over highway 120 on Union. I normally don’t struggle through hills, but on this run I had slight difficulty because my legs were sore.

With my legs sore, I had to continue to focus on maintaining my runing form just so that I can continue to run efficiently.

At close to the 12.95 mile mark, I had to stop as someone’s pit bull dog was loose. I had to walk so as not to induce the chase instinct of this animal. I waited until the dog left before I continued on to finish my run.

I finished the run at an average pace of 9:30 per mile. Total time was 2 hours and 3 minutes. This means that my marathon time could be around 4 hours and 30 minutes. We’ll see how my training goes and how my body builds up for this endurance test.

Now on to week 17!