12 days to Boston
Well here we are. Another year. Another Boston Marathon.
This is probably the weirdest part of the training cycle for me. These last couple weeks after all the work is done and it comes down to waiting.
It’s weird because waiting means thinking and thinking is never my friend. The anticipation gap between the brief rest and recovery in the weeks before the race and the sweet, sharp effort of the race itself is filled with energy. If you don’t manage that energy it becomes dark energy.
That’s the taper madness. It means anxiety, worry, doubt and manifests as distraction and bad moods for those around you in your life. It is the ultimate negative feedback loop as you mind thinks ahead to race day and all the things can happen and overflows your buffers.
It’s odd because this is what you have been craving for a few weeks. As you go through the last hard volume and quality of your training your eyes are on that sweet taper, because that’s when it’s all done. But, it’s not all done. In reality all you did was remove the deep glowing distraction of hard training and now you’re stuck in a Sargasso Sea of anxiety.
You were so focused on basic survival you didn’t have time to worry about the race. Now with the blinders of effort and focus removed that race stands before you like an angry ogre. It snarls at your hubris. It beckons you into its gnarly clutches. “Come on Boy! We’ve tangled before and you know how this goes. You or me Boy! Come on!”
It’s not all done. There’s still the race looming. The thinking mind starts to think. What about the weather? How do we keep from overeating? What’s too much training? What’s not enough training? What will we wear? How will we get to the start? How will we organize the finish?
Then your body gets involved, locking arms with your brain to make you even more miserable. “Is that pain in your foot a broken bone? What if it’s a broken bone? I just coughed, am I getting sick? That easy run felt hard, am I over trained?
Stir. Stir. Stir. The great soup of anxiety. The great taper madness.
The answer is easy enough. The answer is to accept that you don’t have an answer. The race is what it is. You can’t run the race until race day. Trying to think yourself forward to the race doesn’t help close the gap.
You know what to do. Let the race come to you. Don’t try to control the race. Don’t try to force the race to your thinking will. Let it come. No matter what happens you are going to be ok.
It’s all good.
Breathe.