Embracing the Taper

A week from today I'll be running my seventh marathon. The past few weeks I've been tapering and honestly, I've been really enjoying the taper. I've taken a few more days off here and there, and I'm not itching to run or going crazy. I'm enjoying it. I feel relaxed and confident that my training will come through on race day. I came off my highest mileage week feeling strong: I ran two of the fastest track and tempo workouts I've ever run. Ever. And now I'm tapering. The race itself is a little obscure: Around the Lake in Wakefield, MA. I'm going to run 8 times around a lake starting at 7pm. Kinda crazy. But I'll be doing it with my sister-in-law and we practiced a 20 mile run around the lake (6 laps) and it wasn't half bad. I kind of liked it actually, it felt like a really big track workout and I measured the distance in laps instead of miles which somehow made it easier to manage mentally.

I have a few goals for this marathon:

1. Have fun. This isn't a goal race. It is simply the end of this training cycle. I'm running it with my sister-in-law. When we run together time flies, we talk about everything. When one of us is struggling the other is strong, we encourage each other and keep each other going. My goal is for this race to be fun. Next Friday "fun" might mean walking, it might mean sprinting.

2. Don't get greedy. I know I'm faster than I have ever been. I've had several consistently good tempo and track workouts that say so, as well as a 5K PR last month. I don't want to go into this race thinking that suddenly I've become some hot shot superstar. I've worked hard, but I don't want to get greedy. Because that means I'll go out to fast and have nothing left.

3. Finish faster than I start. My last marathon was in the fall of 2011, I paced that marathon well. I ran consistently 8:20-8:30 min/miles  until mile 23 and then the last three miles were all in the high 9's. I'd like to finish fast in those last three miles, or at least maintain my pace through till the end.

I'm hoping I'll have this relaxed attitude on race day. Normally I get super nervous before big races, but hopefully the fact that this is small, obscure and starts at 7pm will make it feel like just another run.

What's the craziest race you ever done? Do you like the taper or hate it?

-Sarah