Saturday, November 3, 2012

The Taper, AKA Hell on Earth

The marathon is next Sunday, y'all. Next Sunday.

I'm feeling good. I'm ready. The weather is supposed to be amazing.

There's only one thing standing in my way: The Taper.

Ugh. I hate it so much.

If I've said it once, I've said it a million times before: I run not only for the health/weight aspects. Running releases endorphins which help regulate my moods, calms my anxieties, mellows me totally out. And if I don't have that endorphin rush...then it gets ugly.

I remember during the taper before last year's marathon, I was sitting in the recliner one evening. The house was clean. The Christmas tree was up and beautiful. We had all just eaten a good meal. There was no current kid drama going on. Work was good, home was good, life was good.

I was about two seconds from bursting into tears. FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER.

Sigh.

I am hoping to mitigate this year's taper by not exactly doing it the "right" way. I took an extra day off last week. I ran just eight miles this morning. I'm going to run six tomorrow and six on Monday. Then I'm basically done. Technically, you're supposed to go down x% of your weekly mileage two weeks before, then you're basically done a week before the marathon.

No way I could have done that. I would lose my mind.

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I have so many thoughts about the cancelation of the NYC Marathon. So many thoughts.

I'm going to be honest: If I were planning to run the race, I'd be seriously upset that it was canceled. I'd be pissed that it was canceled so close to the date of the event.

I understand that there are people in dire straits up there. I'm a veteran of Hurricane Rita, Hurricane Humberto, and Hurricane Ike. Been there, done that more times than I care to.

But running, to me, has always been a healing process.

Sad? RUN.

Bad day at work? RUN.

Bad day with kids, husband? RUN.

Upset at friend? RUN.

Completely depressed and overwhelmed over everything? RUN.

Running is what I do when I can't do anything else.

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