My first half-marathon is less than a week away! Week 9 has been a great week of training, though I am feeling what they call a “taper tantrum.” The training climaxed at the end of week 8 and then has tapered since, in order to keep the body fresh and avoid injury before the race. But after 8 weeks of increased difficulty and hard training, it feels wrong to lighten the load. I’ve heard some athletes refer to this time as feeling like a “caged animal”–you want to keep training hard, but know it’s not in your best interest.

Things have gone really smoothly up to this point. I’ve noted an increase in my stamina, strength, and overall positive feeling about the race itself. I finally got to a point where I could notice a remarkable difference between an easy or “recovery” run and an endurance run. (Remember, in the beginning of my training when I was like, “what’s a recovery run alway?! It’s all hard!”) Not so, anymore. So even if the race doesn’t go the way I hope, I am happy with the gains I’ve made in my running and overall fitness.

I’m not too worried about the weather because I’ve run in all kinds so far! I’ve run in the rain and snow more than once so if we get a rainy day, I’ll be fine. My only concern in that area is for my family, who will be waiting for me to finish. There should be festivities going on at the park to keep them occupied, but I hope the weather is decent for their sake. My biggest concern right now is the possibility of getting sick. We’ve had a nasty cold going around our house that has knocked each of our kids on their backs for a day or two at a time. And there has been a few “clear” days between each child’s symptoms. The latest one was our oldest at the end of last week. I don’t know if Randy or I will come down with it or not but my biggest fear is getting sick right before the race. I don’t care how much ibuprofen I have to pound–it’ll be very difficult to keep me from that starting line!

The next time you hear from me, I will have finished my first half marathon! Cheers to a strong finish!