Marathon Training Weeks 8 and 9

Hi friends! I need to fill you in on my marathon training. It's going, well... going! Nine weeks until the day is here and I'm starting to think I'm crazy to have signed up to run 26.2 miles. But, I'm so freakin' excited! Without further ado, here are weeks 8 and 9 of training:
Week 8

• Monday: "Rest." We actually moved this day so resting was replaced with hauling boxes and hoisting furniture.
• Tuesday: 7 miles. I don't remember if this was before or after work, but I'm going to say before :) *edited: It was not solo and not before work. It was with Melissa after work and was so hard! It was really hot by the time we headed out and pulled out a time of 1:11.
• Wednesday: 4 miles... Again, don't remember the time of day.
• Thursday: 4 miles... When? Who knows.
• Friday: 7 miles before work. I ran 4 with a coworker then finished the last 3 solo.
• Saturday: 14 miles. Long, slow, painful miles. I ran put the kiddos in the jogger and ran the mile to Melissa's, then did 6 with her and Julia, probably too fast for my legs that had already run 4 days in a row that week and with several still to go. After a break at the Peabody residence, I headed home to drop off Jack and Alice to finish the run solo. I had a really hard time getting back out the door and the last 6 miles were a run/walk. I had 15 scheduled but called it quits at 14.

This was a tough week, and the bad long run was draining mentally. But, as you can see, I made a lot of mistakes and it's not surprising the 36 miles total were tough.
Week 9:

• Monday: 4.25 miles with coworkers at lunch
• Tuesday: Bodypump at lunch and 4 miles at the end of the day solo.
• Wednesday: 5 miles at lunch with work friends
• Thursday: Reformer Pilates
• Friday: 7 miles in the morning with work friends. I'm calling this a pace run because we averaged 9:54 a mile, which I'm happy about.
• Saturday: 15 miles! 5 with Melissa, Chris, and Kim then M and I headed out for the rest. I felt strong and we had an overall average pace around 10:25. I read an article in Runners World about doing a 16 mile long run at marathon pace about halfway through training, and since I'm hoping to run 10:30, I'm calling this a win. That being said, I still don't want to set time goals, I just want to finish - under 5 hours :).
• Sunday: Rest.

So there's my 35 miles of Week 9. I veered a little off the plan because this week had more rest days built in to prep for a half marathon race, which clearly I didn't do. I guess it works because I've been sick this week and had extra unplanned rest days. Here's to finishing this week strong! With a little sneak peak... 17 miles on deck this weekend.