Taper Madness... I think not.

Usually during the final week of the dreaded taper I am going crazy. I have cleaned my house from top to bottom, done yard work, planned everything to the last detail and have basically driven everyone around me crazy. It's a little like nesting in those last few days of pregnancy. This go around is different. Sunday gave me the first taste of nerves. You know that butterfly excitement feeling you get that is also accompanied by that pit in your stomach that is associated with a feeling of dread? You know, that one? Well it hit me when I realized that my quads were sore. Very sore. As in after a hard 1/2 marathon downhill sore. Even tonight I can touch my quads and they hurt. Add that to my calves which also took a beating during that trail run and you can see why that pit arrived in the bottom of my stomach. But you know, this time around that pit only lasted Sunday. Amid the training that has not gone as planned, running through yet another stupid injury, and now soreness before I even run the dang marathon, I finally just let go of everything. No more pit in my stomach for me. I've given in. Que sara, sara. Whatever will be will be. So I've had a couple of naps this week. I've watched a chic flic with Heather during the day while the kids were at school. I've eaten more chocolate than I should have. And I got a massage on Tuesday. One hour solely on my calves and feet. It was torturous heaven, if that makes sense. Good hurt. This taper thing, hey it isn't so bad after all.

I thought I had planned what I was going to wear Saturday, but I wore some old capris this morning and wondered why I wasn't wearing them on Saturday. And I still don't know what I'm going to wear on my feet. I could wear my Evo's. But I've only worn them up to 16 miles. And my Sahara desert feet sweat in them. I could wear my gorilla feet (Gist brand five fingers) but that's what I wore on my 20 miler when my toe started hurting. My doc says the shoes didn't cause it, but they have me leery. So I've got about 32 hours to figure that out. I have my shirt picked out at least. And I read through my last Ogden report and remembered that I wished I had brought gloves. So I will this year. And the weather looks decent. 65 degrees and sunny.

Now more than ever I've decided to make my mantra for the last few miles (or many many miles) of this marathon be "embrace the suck". Mike from Canada has been a follower since the beginning. Like 3 years or so. He's seen it all through my short little running stint. And he's offered words of encouragement and wisdom along the way. I was pretty excited because he and I were running marathons on the same day. Until he rolled his ankle this week and is out. Go over and send him some good vibes. I'll be thinking about the suck factor for him, for Heather my running partner, for Janae and for anyone else who doesn't get the privilege of running a marathon this week. Not that everyone one wants to. But for those who do and can't, it sucks. And embracing the suck isn't always easy or what we planned on doing.

Some may call us runners crazy, and they might be right. But it's like we know this little secret that can't be explained through words. Telling someone how running feels doesn't work. It's something so individualized and something that gets planted so deep inside you that it's hard to put into words. I guess that's why this blogging/running community is so great. You don't have to try and explain the madness because everyone just gets it.

As Mike would say, "it's a great day to be alive." Now go out there and act like it!