The Start of the Sort-of Taper

Marathon #2 is in eleven short days. I guess I'm starting the sort-of taper as of tomorrow - I won't be running because I am going to two days of a three day conference and I'll have to leave the house way too early to get there on time. That means my mid-week mileage has dropped from 21 to 18 to 14, plus I am missing Pilates on Friday. For the weekend I am planning on 8 to 10 miles on Saturday, and 4 on Sunday. Next week I'll rest up some more with something like 4-4-4. I haven't decided whether I'll run a short one the day before, I didn't do it before Portland, but I'll wait to see what I feel like.

I'm getting a little excited and a little nervous. Typical pace for Jenny, Amy and Rick is much faster than my usual pace - they all want to slow it down and go easy for this race. However, just the idea of running with faster runners still worries me a little, even though they are very kind and assure me that my pace is "the" pace. On the other hand, running with those three is lively and a lot of fun. The only thing I've been struggling with during this training cycle is hydration. It was easy to drink enough when it was warm out, but I just don't feel like it when it's cool. I think I need to carry a thermos of hot tea with me - then I'd drink for sure. Might be kind of heavy though. I will have to force myself to drink that zipfizz regardless of the weather.

I am thinking that this small race will give me a whole new view of the marathon. There are water stations every five miles or so, though we are taking an early start and I was warned that the water stations will open in relation to the regular start time. Eric is planning to be home from his 50 miler and will start crewing for us about half way, which will be an enormous help.

Exactly three weeks later, I'll be taking on Seattle. I keep hearing about the Seattle hills - they don't really worry me, what worries me more is the unpredicatable weather. I've been at this race when it has been raining sideways and I've been at it when it was under a freezing sun. I don't care whether the sun is out or not, I'm just hoping for dry - I can't quite imagine running in the rain for 5+ hours. Either way, it too, will be an exciting race. It's back to the big marathon experience, running with another set of fast runners - Jenny again, and Lesa. Amy's running it too, but I'm not sure if she's sticking with us, or going it alone. If all goes according to plan, Amy will become a Maniac that day. (Just so you know, Amy is running UWR with us, a 50K the next weekend, then Seattle. Definitely Maniac material!) Jenny's plan is to slow down for these two races so she can finish three in two months and become a Maniac. In fact, since that will be the third race for all of us, we're kind of hoping we can get three consecutive Maniac numbers. Lesa is already a Maniac, but will be running this as a come-back race having had surgery a couple of weeks ago.

Kind of an amazing group of runners, aren't they? That statement is actually true of every one in our running club. They are fun, supportive at all levels and enthusiastic about everything running - and non-running too!