We have entered race week. The feeling is strange not having a full week of training planned out, tapering will always feel abnormal and ends with being full of energy with it not all being used throughout intervals and long Level II runs. But this is the week I have been leading up too, putting all my effort towards and the motivation to push myself everyday.
Knowing that it comes down to just one race is slightly intimidating as it is the make or break of the training and if it doesn’t go to plan it feels like a failure. But through this training block I have learned more than that. I have learnt how far I can push myself and how much I love to run long distances.
The race at the end of the day is just the celebration of the training and the visual effect of it all, I want to go into this race excited and live in the moment.
I love running and racing and I hope that I can feel that through my run, as I don’t just run for a happy but for a passion that I love. Over the past week of my final prep of training before the taper it was also my last full week of school which kind of helped distract me from the larger interval sessions I had throughout the week.
This meant there was lots of dressing up and celebrating these final days before the finish on the 31st. On Friday I dressed as a pumpkin for Halloween which was actually more comfortable that I expected but the paint I used on my skin was most defiantly not.
I’m excited for my race and then the quick turn around into short distance racing again too see just how much potential I can put into myself but also knowing to enjoy where I have come and what I have yet to come in Dunedin next year.
This weekend I’m going to give it my all in the race and see just how far into the pain cave I can crawl out of and hopefully successfully run my best possible. All we can do now is rest, eat, and taper my way to Sunday before the gun goes off and the pain begins.
– Jessica Bray