Getting Nervous

This past Friday night I was kind of off-kilter, but wasn't sure why. About an hour later it hit me, I was starting to get nervous. It's only gotten more frequent since then. 26.2 miles, that's a long way to run. Rationally, logically I know I did enough training and know I should be as ready if not more ready than your average first timer. But emotionally I'm still nervous. There's nothing more I can do at this point either, so being nervous doesn't help anything. Hopefully logic wins out soon.

This past week was week 2 of the taper. I bought some clipless pedals and shoes for my bike and enjoyed several bike rides with them. I can tell I am going to really like them and suspect it will enhance my cycling strength. I also had a good tempo run, a 5K speedwork session, and a 10K race that I substituted in for my long run this week. The Bolder Boulder 10K is a huge race with around 50K participants. I believe it is the second largest 10K in the US. It's a fun race with tons of spectators, bands along the course, and a fun finish into the football stadium and 2/3 of the way around the track. I know a 10K race isn't exactly part of the standard taper, but it is fun, and it's a company tradition where I work so I'd never live it down if I skipped it. I didn't meet my goal time of 54:00, but the 55:38 I ran was still a PR (by 8:24)!

I don't know if I'll post again before the race or not. This week I'm hoping to relax, eat well, drink lots of water, do a couple 3 mile marathon pace runs, and skip all my cross training (no matter how much I'll want to ride my bike). And I think I'll dig out that book of marathon stories and re-read some of the stories in it.

Week 2: 13.2 miles, long run 10K race
----------------
Now playing: The Band - Ophelia
via FoxyTunes