One would think that after running a couple of races that I’d be over the jitters. Even the local 5k non-timed fun run will even get the anxiety going. Knowing this I tried to head it off at the pass for the marathon. I kept telling myself and others that “it’s no big deal” and “I just want to finish” and “I’m not shooting for a specific time” and “you’ll do fine, you followed a training program.”
Did that work? Not a chance. Last night while trying to get a good nights sleep all the anxiety that I’d managed to dodge with the statements above came crashing down around me. It doesn’t help that traveling brings some on, and that I’m seriously entertaining the idea of purchasing a new motorcycle (more on that in another post) so the brain was working overtime. But clearly it’s the race. Every cell in my body had a collective realization last night and that pretty much ended the possibility of sleep.
In the past it’s simply been a rough sleeping the night before a race. I was, and still am, expecting to not have a full nights sleep before the marathon. I just didn’t think that it would hit me quite so soon. The taper in miles probably isn’t helping out much either. I’m hoping that my run today, coupled with my lack of sleep last night, will help me catch a couple of winks tonight (fingers crossed).