Tapering

Ugly run this morning.  We had 15 with 8 of them at race pace, but the temp was in the 60s and probably close to 100% humidity.

If that's the hand I'm dealt on race day, I'm not even going to attempt a PR.  I'm just not strong or fast enough to PR in these conditions. 

So I'm going to hope for good weather! 

But either way, the run is over.  I'm officially tapering.  I'm going to try to dial it back a little at work and hopefully start getting some extra sleep.  I might go for ice cream today (build-your-own ice cream sandwich, where you pick the cookie flavors and ice cream flavor).  But after that, I'm going to hopefully keep my eats pretty clean.

I bought some new clothes yesterday for the trip -- a pair of yoga type pants that will be good for plane rides, a cotton skirt, and 3 tops -- a sweater, a short sleeve and a sleeveless.  I'm going to start packing today, at least laying out things I want to take. 

Hubby made a little chart of the average high and low temps for each city on the day we arrive, as well as the record highs and lows for that day.  It was interesting to see that in Italy (he looked up Lamezia Terme, where his family is, and Lecce, where we're going to visit our neighbors), the record high is something like 10 degrees higher than the average, and the low is about 10 lower.  But in the US, including in Boston, the records is about 40 higher than the average, and the low is about 30 lower than the average.  Why is the weather so much more extreme here?  With my marathon luck, maybe I'll end up with one of those rotten days. 

Anyway, one of my other fun taper projects is watching a bunch of inspirational running movies.  I just watched that Nova one called Marathon Challenge.  And I just finished Without Limits, a Steve Prefontaine movie.  I knew the story but still sad.  He died a few months before I was born. 

Going through a lot of mental struggles today.  Thinking about the conditions this morning, during my run, I kept telling myself I don't care what my Boston finish time will be.  I've tried to keep my expectations low, and to keep my husband's there too.  He says he just wants me to finish feeling good enough to get on a plane to Italy the next day.  But obviously I've been trying to train hard and I reallly want a PR, no matter how tough the Boston course is.  And when I watch a movie like Without Limits, I think that I need to push myself hard and not let myself take the easy way out.

I think the weather will largely dictate my race.  If it's good, I need to go for it.