In less than two weeks, I will be running my 6th marathon. It is hard to believe that the taper is already here. I feel super prepared and also not prepared at all simultaneously. I have put in the work. I followed my training plan. I felt great running my longest run last weekend of 20 miles. So why do I not feel 100% confident that I will tackle another 26.2?
The last time I ran a marathon was in November of 2019. If you just look at my performance at the race, you would say I did really well. I ran almost the whole race, only walking at water stations until the last mile or so when I needed to walk more often. I got a personal best time.
But leading up to that race wasn’t so great. I trained differently, I switched the type of shoes I was wearing, and I ended up getting injured. I had to bail on a Ragnar team the week of the race. That training cycle may have gotten me a great time in my marathon but it totally changed the course of my running. I didn’t feel like I belonged with my running group anymore. And then the pandemic hit.
It was hard to stay motivated to run when there weren’t any races to run. I tried to do virtual races, but it just was not the same. I missed traveling to big races, meeting up with friends, and all the excitement of the race atmosphere. I went more than a year without running an in person race.
I think part of why I feel so weird about this race is because it still does not feel like it is really going to happen. 2020 and 2021 conditioned me to expect races to be postponed or cancelled altogether. I just keep thinking to myself that I cannot believe race weekend is almost here. It isn’t because my body is undertrained… my brain is.
Don’t get me wrong, I am super excited for this race. I do not have any huge expectations or goals. I think it will be a huge accomplishment for me to just finish the dang thing. After everything I have gone through since my last marathon, crossing the finish line is all I really care about. I do plan on setting some goals to help me mentally on race day, but I will post about those later.
Thank you for sticking around and reading my blogs when I write them. I really hoped that I would update more frequently this year, but like any other year that has gone by I find myself losing motivation to write or lacking time to update. I will try to post some training recaps and a race recap of the two in person races I have done in the last couple of months. I will post about my goals for the Detroit Marathon, too… soon… since it is less than two weeks away!!
RD on the Run 