The Wait

There is one week to go before my first big race of 2012 – the Platte River ½ Marathon.  The race day instructions arrived, unbidden, in my in box.  When I signed up for the race, it was the middle of the winter.  Now the race is so close and I wonder if I am prepared.

I am in full-on taper mode.  I have scaled back on my weekly mileage.  I will not be attending Tuesday’s track workout.  There is nothing to gain and everything to lose. 

I have reviewed my training log.  I have done enough training and I have trained hard.  There have been some amazing training races, some great training runs and some awful runs.  I did a lot of speed work on the treadmill this winter.  The Platte River course is mostly downhill.  I’ve done downhill tempo runs.  There is a one, half mile long hill about a mile from the finish.  I’ve certainly done enough hill work.  I feel ready.

The question, as always, is what pace should I shoot for? 

Next Monday Tim, Ken, David, Scott K, Tom and Jeff will shuffle into the corals in Hopkinton.  I certainly am jealous of them.  I’d love to run the Boston Marathon again.  Maybe in 2016. 

And what to do with all the extra time I have due to the taper?  There is always yard work to do.  I play the trumpet a little more.  I sand down my calluses.  I read a little more.  I am finishing “1861; The Civil War Awakening” by Adam Goodheart. 

One of my other interests is the Civil War Era.  A lot is made of the fact that President Abraham Lincoln was shot on Good Friday; martyred for his beliefs as Jesus was for his. 

Today is Easter Sunday.  I love today’s reading (John 20: 1-9) because it is about a foot race. 

“So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb.  They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first;”

Yeah, that’s nice, but what were there chip times?