Taper Time is upon us! T minus 10 days until I run the Thumb Coast Full Marathon in Caseville, Michigan on November 2nd. 

I am so excited about doing this race. Runners will run on the Lake Huron coast for 26.2 miles. Maybe the lake views will distract me from the pain!

The Marathon Course Map (below)

For those of you who do not know what taper time is, taper time is the time before a race where athletes significantly decrease their training volume and intensity. This process enables their bodies to recover, repair, and get ready for optimal performance for race time. 

During this time, athletes can have periods of mood swings since they aren’t heavily engaging in their activity of choice and dialing back a bit. Minor aches and pains can also pop up, which is completely normal and can also lead to feeling extra emotions, especially when preparing to run 26.2 miles. 

Personally, taper time is a weird time for me. It’s a love hate relationship. It means that race day is closer which is exciting, but it also means race day is closer which can also be nerve-wracking! I do feel the mood swings during taper time and I am also usually obsessing over weather stalking for race day, even though it is way too early to do that!

For me, and most runners, what is important during this time is that self care is bumped up a notch. Getting enough sleep, eating properly, and staying on routine is a must. This is not the time to try any new physical activities or be on your feet too much. It is a time to relax and be mindful of the training that was completed! I’ve run over 500 miles during this training block. I have also been consistent with strength training and my routine. I am proud of getting to this point! 

One thing I like about taper time is the fact that self care needs to be one of the most important things. Usually, I use this time to update my race playlist, do a gear and packing list checklist and make sure I have everything I need, and then organize and pack all my gear. Right now, I am building my playlist and my goal is to have it done this weekend. I have been testing out most of the songs already, but I have gotten sick of some of them so I wanted to swap several of them out. I already have all my gear, I just have to pick up one last order from my local running store and then I will be all set. Typically, I use the week before to start packing my gear. 

I also use taper time to binge watch my favorite shows! I am excited for the Netflix show “Nobody Wants This,” to come out tomorrow. Although, I am disappointed that I can’t add eating Halloween candy to the mix, since that is not the healthiest thing to be eating right now! I swear, one of these days, I won’t train for a marathon around Halloween (I have for the last 5 years!).

Most importantly, this is the first sober marathon training block I have completed, so that makes things interesting too. My cravings are definitely more intense right now, since I don’t have a whole lot of miles to run to distract me. But, I feel very accomplished and I am really looking forward to what a sober marathon is going to feel like. I didn’t ever think I could do this sober and here I am doing it! Over the last several months, it was difficult to get used to feeling all the pain that goes along with marathon training, instead of blazing out and being high and not worrying about the pain. Instead of avoiding the feeling of pain, I have been leaning into it and I am not as scared of it when it comes. 

Running 26.2 miles is no joke. At some point, the pain cave is going to set in and I am going to want to give up and stop running. That is when I have to push harder than I have ever pushed before. 

“No matter how much you train, there’s always going to be a point in a race when you don’t feel like running anymore… It’s the point in the run where your mind really has to take over where the body is failing.” Meb Keflezighi