Taming the Taper

Tapering for a marathon is a challenge for runners.  After months of hard work, your job becomes resting, recovering, hydrating, and fueling properly.  Not running.  In fact, running more than you should can hurt your race, so your job becomes not running...after running a lot.  It's a mental challenge, because you want to run, just to make sure you still can, as if somehow tapering is suddenly going to cause you to forget how to run.  Some runners get cranky and irritable, and essentially walk around in a bubble surrounded by caution tape, warning people to steer clear.  Personally, I get emotional.  Every taper has made me emotional leading up to race day, and this one is no different.  Every taper has brought me to tears for different reasons and with them a need to strategize ways to combat those emotions.  This time around, here is what's working:

• Focus on Preparation:  I may not be able to run as much as I'd like, but I can put that focus on other areas of preparation.  I have planned out what I'm eating every day this week, right up through race day breakfast and put a lot of time into making sure I'm taking in the proper fuel.  I use Nuun tabs in my water, and I have plenty to ensure I take in enough water all week, as well as a 2.5 gallon container of water for school to get me started.  I know what I'm wearing to the race, while I'm racing, and after the race.  I've never been this prepared in these areas before, and it is definitely bringing with it a sense of calm.
• Perspective:  By now, I have accepted the fact that I am a marathoner and will be until my body won't allow it any longer.  I am also realizing that I am capable of more than I believed when I first started training for Boston, and that following this marathon, I have plenty more to look forward to as I continue training for a sport I have come to love.   This race isn't an end, but more like a checkpoint, and then it's onward and upward with new goals and more races.  The end of this race is simply the fresh start to a new training season.  I hate endings, so this perspective is going a long way to keeping me mentally strong.
• Inspiration:  I find inspiration in so many things around me.  Supporting a charity that inspires me with all the good they do for our community is what got me started on this journey.  I have met some of the most incredible people as my journey has progressed, lifelong friends that make me a better person, simply because I know them.  And my family, they way they have supported this journey, even when I wasn't balancing it as well as I should have.  The way they will continue to support me, no matter the outcome of the race, because they are so proud and believe in me.
• Crying:  Sometimes you just need a good cry, and I honestly feel as if it takes more energy to hold it in than to just let it go. (Yes, I'm crying right now.)  There's nothing noble in in being stoic 100% of the time.  Sometimes you're scared, or tired.  Sometimes you're sad, or hurting. Sometimes you just don't even know what's behind it, but letting the tears flow offers a comforting release and allows me to refocus on one of those other things above.

Six more days to keep the taper beast under control, and then I get to leave it all out on the streets of Rhode Island.  I got this...and then so much more!