Tapering and Pre-race anxiety

Its that time again! The weekend of the my 6th marathon (one was a DNF) has arrived, and I am feeling the mental 'angst' brought on by decreased training, increased energy levels and apprehensiveness. So goes the taper. This is, to my memory, different than I have ever felt before. I am less nervous about finishing this time, and more secure in the amount of training behind me, but I am dealing with the fear associated with shooting for a true breakout performance and big PR. In my mind though, I know that I am more prepared than ever for this run, with a rock solid base, speed work, long runs etc etc etc. . . . It is hard to believe in ones self sometimes, but I think that I have done what I need to do to have a good performance The day after tomorrow.

Over the past two weeks sans posting (whoops!), I recorded one 70 and one 50 mile week (3 and 2 weeks ago respectively), and at this point in my week am about 22 miles in. I had a great mile repeat workout last tuesday, where all of my miles were less than 5:30, most well under that and increasing to the end of the workout. I had a good last 20 miler at 7 minute pace a few days before that, and I am feeling strong as I write this.

I am down in San Diego staying with my parents, and I made it to the Marathon Expo today, and managed to ding my Accord up in the parking lot (sh*t). Aside from that it was a cool experience, especially because I held a door open for who I THINK was Meb as I was leaving. I am bib number 1020 (kind of scary to be starting in the first wave!!!!)

I bought into the Pfitzinger pre-race eating model of short slow runs + carb heavy diet (90%) in order to load my liver and muscles with enough glycogen to keep me going through what I am guessing will be mile 23, after which point the challenge is on. I will not be drinking at every aid station as Advanced Marathoning suggests though, as I feel that drinking to thirst is the better strategy. I am going to take water on the course, along with Cliff energy blocks, which have been my go to fuel of the past few months.

As far as pacing, I think I have the legs to run an average pace of about 6:24 min/mile, but I am looking to run the first half at as close to a relaxed 6:30 pace as possible, but by running 1 mile at a time. I am hoping that things go well, and that I am able to accelerate through the last 10k of the race, but I am looking for a strong performance, and not a put-it-all-on-the-line-and-maybe-blowup type of performance. I want to negative split, and I think that I can do it.

I have had so much support from all of the people in my life to get here, and I know that they all just want me to do my best. This is the best thing about being a rec-runner: you set your own expectations! Regardless, I am going to break down my multi-teered goal structure:

1: finish: finishing any marathon is an accomplishment.

2: PR: obvious reasons, but I would love to run under 3:03:57

3:Top 50 finish: not sure what I would have to run but this would be awesome

4: sub 3 (I will be happy)

5:sub 2:55 (I will be elated)

6: sub 2:50 (I will be the happiest)

7: Age group award: This would be a nice cherry on top of the rest of everything.

Until Sunday afternoon when I update again!