10 Days and Counting!

I am into my pre-race taper. Normally, I get a little bit of "taper madness" and I don't want to jinx things, but so far so good! I am 10 days out from race day and feeling anxious, nervous, and excited.

During the taper, I still train. The idea is to reduce miles, not intensity. This past weekend I was supposed to run 15 miles. I convinced my friend Tessa to join me. We met at o'dark thirty to start (5:30 I think?). A rough sequence of events:

• We got started in the pitch black
• The sunrise brought gorgeous colors into the western sky--gray, blue, white, purple, orange
• I busted out a rendition of the West Virginia state song
• Way off in the distance, to the west, we saw bolts of lightening
• Followed, some time later, by the feet of two rainbows (bottoms? pillars?), and then, lightening flashing across those, then more of the rainbow appeared
• We saw a recently finished "Walking Bridge" and decided to see where it went. We quickly discovered that the sign was incredibly literal--this bridge ain't made for running, due to bounce. And...it doesn't really go anywhere. But here I am giving it a try. 

• Then we got into uncharted territory (for us) on the path, and ended up somewhere we didn't know the path went. Along the way, we ran past what appeared (over the cinder block wall) to be a shanty town, with a very real random horse hanging out (sans wall, just a wire fence) by the trail. 
• After our turn-around, it started misting. 
• And we made a wrong turn which,
• Took us about a mile out of our way
• And then it started full-on raining, when we had about 1.5-2 miles to go (I don't really mind this, for the record)

All told, we ran 16 miles at a 9:25 pace. It felt easy, which is crazy. This was a case where a good attitude prevailed. We believed the distance was short, so it felt short. 

Otherwise this week, I've already done 1 easy day and 1 tempo run, and have 2 easy days to go. I've started making final plans and arrangements for race weekend logistics: dinner reservation is made, race clothes are picked out, Gu flavors are selected, pace bands have arrived. The only big thing left is to plan my nutrition during race week, because I will not let poor fueling sink my race! Been there, not going back. 

Who else has a race in the coming weeks? Do you have taper madness? Are you excited? Anyone on the fence about signing up for a race?