Monday, October 22, 2012

Almost Marathon Time!

Yesterday afternoon, I went for my second-to-last "long" run of this training season. I'm in taper mode - though my legs don't really believe it after this morning's intervals - so all of my workouts are getting shorter. Instead of the usual 18-20 miles for my long run, yesterday I did just 13, and next weekend I'll do only 10. (Trust me, these seem like small numbers when you're training for a marathon.)  It hadn't really sunk in that the race was really all that close until I got to Central Park, three miles from my apartment, and saw a series of flags like the one below lining the lower part of the running path:


After a bike ride on Saturday, Ed had mentioned that he saw bleachers set up by where the finish line will be.   I heard him, but it didn't really register. Seeing these flags lining the part of the park that will signal the end of the race, and the rows of port-a-potties and bleachers already set up, however, made me feel sort of quivery. In exactly two weeks, I thought, I'll be actually running this thing. I sure hope I'm ready.

One very encouraging piece of news is that my parents, who were planning a trip to NYC sometime this fall anyway, decided to come the weekend of the race. My brother and his wife will also be joining us from DC. It helps a lot to see familiar faces along the course, and I'm looking forward to seeing the whole crew near the finish line and celebrating with them afterward.

New York Road Runners, the club that organizes the marathon, is sending out daily emails to registered runners by now. One of their coaches wrote that, at this point, "the hay is in the barn," meaning that there's not much more we can do to train anymore; now it's all about getting good nutrition and making sure to rest up while still staying limber. That's partly comforting and partly alarming. Have I done all I can to prepare for this race? Probably not, but apparently it doesn't matter at this point. All I can do is try to think positively and think about how good it's going to feel to get to the part of the park where I can see those orange flags on November 4th.

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