Taper time!

I thought maybe a blog post was in order now that taper time has officially begun. Things have been going great. I feel good about running and about life in general. The sentencing hearing is coming up, which jars the nerves a bit, but honestly it's not bothering me much at all right now.

In fact, my life-is-good feeling could not even be budged by a bonktastic last long run. I had 17 scheduled for Saturday, but I also really wanted to spectate the Indy Monumental Marathon, so I planned on running the 17 in the afternoon with Tracy. Then we were a little late getting back, and since Tracy had plans and couldn't push the run much later, we agreed to do it yesterday afternoon instead. Over the course of the weekend, I did not eat nearly enough, due to the routine-busting schedule and general excitement, and also did not drink enough water. Then the run itself was hot (71 degrees and sunny after weeks of 50ish is definitely hot), windy, and hilly. We ran probably a little too fast, but I don't think the pace contributed much to the bonk. I had to walk it in for the last couple of miles, and called it 15. Tracy is seriously AWESOME for staying with me and making me sip water as we walked.

So, I still got in a solid just-slightly-shorter-than-long run, and I'm totally fine with it. I still feel confident and really excited for Philly. The route we ran was new to me and I really, really liked it. Just a beautiful, scenic route in the hills south of town. Definitely a keeper, and a route to return to for Boston training!

Now the hay's in the barn, and the fact that the last bale is a few straws short isn't causing me any lack of sleep. Bring on Philly! I'm already going a little stir-crazy, and as a result have signed up for a mess of races for the winter and spring. The newest is the turkey trot at home, which, being just four days after Philly, will just be a fun recovery fun to support a good cause (diabetes education at the local hospital). Who needs money anyway?

New races include:

• Fast Freddie's Festive Five-Mile Foot Feast. Thanksgiving Day. Featuring tech shirts this year, WHOO! A tradition. I've run this race all but two or three years since like 1996.
• First Light Half Marathon. Mobile, Alabama. January 10. Random! But there's a rhyme to this reason. We are going to race in a new state and visit our awesome friend Michelle who just moved there in pursuit of a job. Goal is to go sub-1:37 and get my NYC guaranteed entry. Psst! Mark is doing the full! And I am "coaching" him. More on that later.
• 500 Festival Training Series 5K. February 13. Flat course. Just want to see what happens.
• 500 Festival Training Series 10K. March 6. Ditto.
• Indy Mini. May 8. Three weeks after Boston. This is more about the social aspect of running. Probably won't be gunning for any PRs, but we'll see. I can get seeded pretty far up front this time, so that should be fun.

So, in other racing news, Mark quite suddenly got the marathon bug again and decided to sign up for the First Light Marathon. It's a little soon (9 weeks from yesterday), but I am confident that with the base fitness he built up doing his recent half, he'll be able to do it. I drew up a training schedule for him that will have him peaking at 55 miles per week, and averaging probably 45ish over 9 weeks. It will be challenging, but perfectly doable. I'm excited to see how my training philosophy works for another person.