It's TAPERtime finally!

This past Saturday marked the final "long" run of my training program. Long is in quotation marks because this upcoming Saturday I have a 14-16 mile run but at this point apparently that is short :-)

What does that mean for my training? Well it means it is time to scale back the weekly mileage and workouts to make sure I am fresh and injury free come race day. So while my running mileage was up around 47 miles last week, this week will be a "relaxing" 40-44 miles with a massive drop next week down into the 23-30 mile range. Who knows what I will do with all the added free time coming up!

For many runners, the taper period is actually not enjoyable as they struggle to deal with the idea that training season is almost over and issues that are not significant or real begin to play mind games. As this image highlights what are known as the taper crazies.

Honestly, at least at this point I am super happy to be tapering as I can honestly say I have begun to feel some wear and tear on my legs at this point with some soreness in my left foot and ankle as well as my right IT band and calf. And I don't think they are phantom pains as above indicated.

So what about that last long run? In short, it was probably my 2nd best run of the season and the longest by almost 4 miles. This despite another horrific weather day with blowing snow and below freezing temperatures that dropped as the run went on. So going into Boston, I am pretty happy with how my training has gone.

Saturday's run was made even more special by a very dedicated volunteer (Sandy) at the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge, who lost her son, Matty, to cancer and has made it a mission of hers to make sure her son is never forgotten. She decided to volunteer each and every week this season at the water stops for the running, and before Saturday's run she gave an inspiring speech to motivate the group.
Unbeknownst to her, two of the team members who run for Team Matty had arrange for the majority of the team, if not all of the team, to wear a blue Team Matty shirt in honor of her son's angelversary.

Still in awe of the awesome support this team provides my family!!
Posted by Sandra Cohan Dubuc on Saturday, March 28, 2015

It was a very overwhelming moment that I think helped put the grueling run we had ahead of us in perspective. It certainly made me look forward to miles 8 (10 for me) and 14 (16 for me) of the course where she was manning her family's water stop with her two other sons and husband. They are all so supportive and involved and it is great to see them rally together as a family. For the first time in all the training runs, I even stopped for a photo, since it just seemed like the right thing to do.

Sandy, a photo of Matty and me at mile 16.

Today, there is 3 weeks to go, I haven't lost any of my toenails (yet) or had any bleeding nipples and finally I can pull back on the throttle a bit. Expect some more posts over the last 3 weeks with my extra free time including the one you have all been waiting for and probably one about how I am going to deal with Passover not ruining me.

Thanks for reading!

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