Taper Pains

Every athlete knows the feeling. It’s taper time! Time for the body to absorb all the training and for recovery from all the hard work. You’ve made it to the last few weeks before the race, without injury or missing key training session. And then - as the taper starts - something starts aching. A new niggle here, a strange ache there. What is going on?! 

Taper pains. Are they real? When you hobble back after a three mile run of panic, they definitely seem real! I can’t even run three miles, how will I cover 100? The minute a taper pain appears, athletes consult Dr Google, freaking out that something is really wrong. Dr Google is the worst resource for any taper stressed runner. That weird ache becomes a stress reaction, maybe even a stress fracture. The tight heels are self-diagnosed into full blown tendinitis. Gah! The race is ruined! Until the next run, when something completely different is aching. The original panic inducing pain is gone and there’s something new twinging with each step. 

Or the dreaded illness creeping up. Hard to avoid in the summer, even worse in the fall and winter. A coworker sneezes and you run for the hand sanitizer. Perhaps even to the point of buying in the CostCo size container. I mean, really - you can’t have enough of that stuff during the taper! Spouse coughing? Should I break out the mask and treat everyone as potentially contagious? Oh no, I’m not sick. I’m just trying not to get sick! At times, it feels like you should be the Bubble Boy, safely ensounced in a sterile environment. Wouldn’t want to jeopardize the race for one random microbe floating around! 

To others, it seems like we are over reacting. It’s just a race. But outside of the people closest to us, it’s impossible to understand the amount of time and energy that we’ve devoted to training for the race. Finishing is never a given - we need to maximize every chance we have to reach the finish line. I think the taper pains are the outward reflection of the nerves leading up to the race day. After the months of hard work, the miles of training, it’s finally time. Nothing left to do but finalize lists and plans, pack the gear and prepare the mind. With all the time on our hands, it’s easy to get freaked out and panic about everything. Be it taper pains or taper tantrums, this too shall pass - when we step to the line and face down the miles to be covered.