Saturday, September 20, 2008

Time to taper

Well, almost anyway. Most people here in the TC area are getting ready for the Twin Cities Marathon in a few weekends. They're already in their first week of taper. I, however, am not doing Twin Cities. I may do it again someday but after some careful consideration I think I've come to the conclusion I don't like that run. If they have a cool medal then I'll do it. Otherwise I'll volunteer at a water stop and cheer my fellow runners on.

Instead of the Twin Cities Marathon I'm doing The Whistlestop Marathon the following weekend. It was a great experience last year and I even got to stay with a friend of mine from college. This time she won't be around but graciously let me have free reign on her home. Originally I was just going to sleep in my car but she told me she'd slap me if I did that. Women.

Hopefully it's another cool evening in northern Wisconsin for the run. I really like the drive there and with the fall colors starting it'll be that much better.

The weekend after Whistlestop I'm making a trip to Des Moines for The Des Moines Marathon. If I'm going to do all 50 states and Des Moines is happening right now and I'm kind of in shape for marathons as is, why not get it out of the way. Besides... you get a really sweet medal from Des Moines. It's so dense you can use it to knock someone out. It's not, however, recommended as a replacement for pepper spray.

That's my fall marathon rundown.

Today I ran my last 20 miler. It went okay. I can definitely tell I've not been training at all during the weeks. The miles got done but the last 2-3 were really tough. And I had to do a run/walk combo to finish. It was really pathetic. But, I'm telling myself I already peaked for the year and this is just icing on the cake.

Yeah... that's it.

2 comments:

SteveQ said...

I'm thinking I might do WhistleStop. If I do, I'll have to sleep in the car.

Jim said...

Steve - No way. My friend Carley is letting me crash at her place. I'm sure she wouldn't mind if I brought a guest.

My email is jimsheldon AT mac DOT com. Drop me a line if you plan on doing Whistlestop. We'll work something out.