Oy, what a day!

This was not a great day.

While I was only mildly hoarse during the day on Friday and about the same yesterday, by this morning my voice was truly shot. Bad enough sounding while talking in a normal tone of voice, but I couldn't even sing at all without sounding as horrible as Carlotta from "Phantom of the Opera" when her voice turned into a toad's. Oy!

Then my run this morning couldn't have gone too much worse. (A bit, surely.) First, after finishing 9 miles, my legs were feeling a bit tired, so I pulled back to a walk for two minutes before bringing it back to speed. Then after 2 more miles, apparently the peanut butter that I had eaten yesterday finally kicked in. By the time I got back from the restroom and was only on the treadmill for another 1/2 mile, I had a nasty stitch in my right side. So, I dropped to a walk to finish out that mile before trying to get to speed again. NG - it wasn't happening; I couldn't get rid of the stitch. So, another 4 miles merely walking to finish out my planned 16 miles. And, wouldn't you know it, by the time I was a little over 1 mile into those last 4, the socks I was wearing (different than I normally wear for my long runs, since I was dealing with healing up a blister on one of my toes, so couldn't use the toe socks) rode low, and my sneakers dug into the back of my heal -- DAMN that hurts. So, after adjusting the sock a little bit, I dropped the pace a touch more for the remainder of the time.

Talk about a dreadful training run. Only one more long run in the taper before Mesa, and at that it will only be 13.1.

Has my training gone well enough to hit the times that I want? 3:16 or better for a sufficient BQ (since I'm predicting BQ-9:00 will be needed for 2025), and under 3:14 for NY Qualifying time for 2025. 

Empirically, it looks like the answer should be "no." But we'll see. The conditions may be favorable enough that I can manage it. If only they had a 3:15 pacer. Unfortunately, their pacers are on either side of that time: 3:10 and 3:20. If only I thought BQ-6:00 would do it, I'd go out with the 3:20 pacer and then just properly time my breakaway. But trying to get 6 minutes ahead of the pacer, spread out so that it's not a huge difference in my pace, would require breaking away just after the half and dropping 30 seconds per mile for the rest. Doing that much of a negative split is highly unlikely.