Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Tapering and deleting 'just'

The training that began in June will end in eleven days. We ran about ten and a half miles Saturday, and that will be our longest run until our 13.1 on December 6th. It was a very focused run, void of the usual chit chat and instead the brief spurts of conversation were about race day planning. I know what I will wear race day. I know what I will eat the night before and morning of. I have my water breaks planned out along the course. I know where the uphill and downhill portions of the course are. I even know where our cheering sections will be. Now we taper: do some easy runs, stretch, hydrate, and mostly wait.

I may be making a lot out of running a half marathon. After all, I keep telling myself, it's just a half. When I talk with people about race day, I usually have to correct them, "No, I'm just running the half."

Then I think that this time last year, I was struggling to walk 8 miles, and here I am about to run 13. Two years ago walking 3 miles seemed like an eternity. So what I need to do is take the "just" out of my vocabulary. I need to rest up over the next week and enjoy my 13 mile run. Then I need to celebrate.

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