Ahhh, the joys of tapering...time to clean the entire house, time to catch up on those pesky errands that seem to pile up faster than dirty laundry, time to...what do people who don't run do all day?
At the moment I am tapering for the St. George marathon, my fourth go-round with this particular race. It's my favorite--thirty-some-odd years ago, the organizers were thinking of me when they designed that course. I love, love, love that course, even though I have a hard enough time walking afterward that the night following my first St. George my little sister ran up and punched my arm and ran away laughing and saying, "Ha! You can't get me." But she was nice too, as we were at an outdoor theater that evening and I'd somehow lifted my feet five inches to rest them on the seat in front of me and couldn't get them down when a lady was going to sit in that seat. My little sister obliged and pulled my feet down for me. Five bucks says she hits me again, though, just because she can.
The nice thing about tapering is that I definitely have plenty of energy for my workout. My legs feel great the whole time but those shorter runs are just not as satisfying as a nice hard, long run. Still, it is nice to know that come race day, my legs will be screaming to be let loose. I can't wait to barrel down those hills. Ah, mile 15 is lovely. The slope pulling me down, yellow sun to the left not quite hot but warming my skin, the right-hand turn and oh oh oh, the red rock view, the steeper slope, the freedom of just running.
