Mellow Taper

The term "taper madness" is common among marathon runners. It comes with anxiety, stress, hypochondria, and feelings of self doubt......its really a great time :) However, this taper I don't seem to be suffering from the madness I have felt my past three marathons. I would actually describe my mood as quite mellow. My massage therapist even commented today that I seem really relaxed compared to last time. Don't get me wrong, I am really excited for this race and to put months of training to use but I not stressing about things.

Some say its because I've got more experience.....I'm not sure if that's the case because there is always something scary about running 26.2 miles no matter how many your have run. Some say its because I am well trained....while that is true, I have learned that nothing is a given come race day.

Here's what I think.....last race I put so much pressure on myself. I was measuring my sole success or failure on running that 3:40 to qualify for Boston. When it didn't happen, I considered it a bad race and started analyzing what went wrong. While there were things that went wrong, I have realized that the race wasn't a failure....I still took almost 6 minutes off my time from the previous fall and that's pretty huge! I lost sight of why I was running.......after all, if its not fun then why do it? I forgot that I actually love to run!

So now I am approaching this race with a different attitude. Goal 1 is to have fun and run a good race.....that is what is most important to me. Sure I am hoping to run fast enough to get my BQ time and I plan to put up one hell of a fight for that.......but if it doesn't happen I will be okay with it. Boston will always be there and there are many other marathons I have yet to run!

Only 3 more sleeps until race day.......let's hope this mellowness continues until then!