Marathon Monday and Tapering Sucks

Today is Marathon Monday in Boston.  I think it's the only race that is held on a Monday and is like a holiday in Boston. The winner of this morning's race finished in an amazing, 2:05:52 setting a new course record.  That means for all 26.2 miles, he held a pace under 5 min/miles. He runs over 12 mph...he must be half cheetah.  Amazing! 

Instead of cheering for tens of thousands of runners, I'm eating lunch in my cube trying to calm my marathon jitters.  Tapering sucks there is no doubt about it. What sucks more is that I've listened to Josh (Yes, I'll say it again, you're right) and stopped going to the gym.  After I met Rache for a workout on Tuesday, I knew I needed to back off because my calf and ankle were hurting to the point where I wasn't walking normally.  Now, almost a week later, with icing and compression socks I feel like I'm so close to being 100%. 

Of course any normal person would be like heck yeah, I get to eat a ton and not workout, awesome. Yeah, not me. I'm going crazy not working out. This is the longest I've gone in I don't even know how long. I've been doing crunches and pushups at home to at least feel the slightest inclination of the burn.  Many runner gain weight during the taper and I'm no exception. I can feel my pants tightening around the waist and I feel gross and bloated.  Oh well, I'm gearing up for the big race right? All of this is not helping with my nerves though. I almost feel more nervous than I did about Seattle. I think it's because I know how hard the distance is and this taper has just been really rough.  I know I'm well trained and resting to get healthy is the right thing to do, but man I'm struggling.

This weekend the carb gods decided they wanted to help me carb load. Josh and I went over to Great Harvest  Bread Company to pick up my free loaf I got at Canyonlands and we actually won something!  They were having some sort of event and every hour at random times there was a basket winner. We just so happened to win!  Score!  Check out our delicious basket: bread, cinnamon roll, apricot jam, a little knife and a gift certificate for $5.  Mmmmmmmmm.  My carb hungry body is very excited about this. In fact I'm enjoying a delicious sandwich right now. Throw in tons of water and Gatorade and you have a runner on a mission to be carb and hydration ready.

We also had an awesome Italian meal...best since being in Italy. We went to Undici  with Russell and Shanna (his girlfriend, not Josh's sister).  So delicious!  Being hungover the next day, not delicious. In fact it totally sucked. No more drinks until after the race.  Biggest highlight though, after four years I finally got a new phone. Yes, I have now joined the 21st Century.