Shizuoka Marathon Blog, XV - Long run complete! Next is the big race!

That face you make at the onsen after going to a work party the night before running 18 miles on an empty stomach and then puking in a cold sweat at the before finally drinking a Coca-Cola and recovering some blood sugar.

Well. Here's a list of things NOT to do before your final marathon training long run:

DON'T go to a work party the night before and drink more than 3 alcoholic beverages.
DON'T get only 4 hours of sleep and decide to eat only an orange for breakfast.
DON'T carry a backpack for the entire length of the run.
DON'T use a beat up phone that can't seem to hold a charge when your running app is on.
DON'T attempt to enter a super hot hot spring before thoroughly rehydrating and sugaring up.
DON'T almost blackout and puke, laying in a cold sweat on the tatami mats for two hours feeling like a human turd.

I did all these things, and they didn't work! ;) What this run did serve to teach me, though, is that running is much easier without doing all of these things! So, in a sense, I'm viewing it as excellent training for the real deal, coming up now in just over a couple weeks!

The course actually ended up being shorter than I had planned, and even though I added some extra jaunts and rabbit trail offshoots to my trajectory, it still only came out to be just over 18 miles. And, by the time I got in view of the onsen--my destination--my morale, and muscles, were pretty worn out. As I mentioned above, I was running with a pack, too. All the external factors considered, I'm still counting it as a tough as training run, even if half of the tough stuff was my own fault!

Regardless!

I'm really looking forward to marathon, as the location and course look totally fucking pretty, my hotel has a view of Mt. Fuji, and the last long training run is over. So. No more heavy boozing. Definitely keep blood sugar in mind. Get plenty of sleep, keep the warrior spirit and.....RUN!!!

P.S. I will also be making a video about my journey to Shizuoka, and am raising money to help pay for transportation costs which, at this time, are going to be a challenge for me to cover. If you would like to donate 5 USD in Bitcoin to support my journey to Shizuoka to run in the Marathon, please use the QR code or the PayPal address below. If you do support me here, leave your name in the comments so I can give you a proper shoutout and thanks in my video!

Cheers, SCORUM crew!

See you there!