It Is Finished. aka “Taper Time”

Well, that’s it. I have done all I can do to get ready for the Philadelphia marathon in just 15 days.

In the last 5 months I have gone from very overweight couch potato who could barely jog a mile to a slightly overweight guy who can run lots o’ miles.

My official tally at the 5.5 month mark is 1,000 miles run and 65 lbs lost. I am actually lighter than I was when I did Ironman Florida 5 years ago–believe it or not. I don’t have a recent picture, but you can check out my glory moment if you wish.

I did my last official long run of 20.5 miles last Sunday with the last 5 miles hard and I am now officially in my taper. The taper, for those of you who don’t know, is that magical 3 weeks of time between your last really hard and really long workout and the race itself. During this time, you gradually reduce your running mileage to allow your body to recover from all your workouts in time for the big day. All gain, no pain. You just have to allow yourself to believe it. I do believe in fairies, I do, I do…

So this weekend, I will run an easy 13 miles and it gets even easier from there.

So it is now Philly on the 20th or bust. I have a goal in mind for my marathon time, but I don’t think I am ready to discuss it in public yet. I haven’t completely made up my mind yet. More on that later.

Happy trails.