Taper Time

I am happy this is my taper week! But I am also getting very nervous for the marathon!  NERVES! My running is limited to a four miler and a three miler this week. But my anxiety is at 26.2 level! 

I have to have faith in my training and know I have put in the miles and the time and now I have to trust in it for race day. I am disappointed I didn't work my core harder (or at all) this training because I know how important that is going to be those last 6 miles. But I have to focus on the fact that I can and WILL finish strong no matter what happens on race day. 

 I am also stressing about the temps. The forecast is now predicting the high to be in the 80's that day. I have to just accept that I can't control the weather and at least it's not going to be a downpour the entire race like last year. Getting hypothermia was not fun. But the heat is also not fun and I do know it WILL be a factor because the hottest temp I have trained in was 62°. And that run was exhausting to me because I was not used to it. 

I do fear the heat come race day. I fear a lot of things, but mostly the unknowns. The unknowns of how I will feel, will I be able to maintain my pace, will I fuel properly, will I hydrate properly, will I hit the wall, will I end up with an unexpected injury, will my music be motivating enough, will I be able to push through the pain, will I get sick, will I be able to use my mantra's when I need them, will I even remember those mantras, will I wish I had never signed up, will I have GI issues, will the porta potty lines be too long, will I get enough sleep the night before, will I be able to keep up with my goal pace, will I trip and fall and bleed all over, will I chafe (dumb question - I already know the answer to that one is a resounding YES!), will one of my devices batteries die, will I hit the wall, will I forget to take something, will... will... will?!!! There are so many unknowns and I just have to let them all go and stop the worrying!  Ha!  Yeah right....

Oh, running is such a mental sport! I hope I am as well trained mentally as I think I am physically. I will know soon enough!  This is my third full marathon and I have trained much better for this one than the other two and so I should be going in with a lot more confidence.  I think I am, but running a marathon is like having a baby...you just never know what to expect and it's different every time no matter how prepared you are.  I wrote a post on that a while ago HERE.  But the crazy thing about running a marathon is that you train HARD for four or five months and it all comes down to one day! ONE day. And on that one day you could wake up not feeling well, or it could be a blizzard or the hottest day of the year so far (as mine is predicted to be!), or you could bonk and have no idea why, or you could end up with an injury you hadn't planned on, so many things can go wrong because it is all focused on that one day. I have to keep telling myself that the odds of having that one day be even close to remotely perfect in every way are pretty slim and so I just need to go with the flow and accept whatever comes my way and just deal with it. I hope my training has helped me to learn that as well. It is what it is and it will be what it will be. Bring it!