Preparing for the Blues

. . . The Oskar Blues Brewery 4-Mile Run, that is.  We ran this race last year and discovered that it had a lot going for it:  a relaxed starting time (11:00 a.m.), a relatively level 4-miles route through rural Brevard, start and finish at a brewery, free beer at the finish line, and a very good food truck serving a hearty lunch at a time of day when it is greatly appreciated.

So today I am resting - "tapering," we runners like to say - before the race, just as I would be if it was a marathon or half-marathon.  Unlike two weeks ago, when I burned brush all afternoon the day before the Frostbite 5-K, I decided that a mere one-mile walk down the road would suffice to keep things loosened up.  This will be, after all, the third of three races spaced two weeks apart so far this year.  My recovery from injury seems to be going well, and at times this week I felt absolutely no pain below that right knee when I was running.  I expect that I will not better last year's time of 38:22 (a PR! - the great thing about racing unusual distances).  But it will be challenging and enjoyable as races always are, and we have decided to stay for dinner, take in a play at the Brevard Little Theater (The Kitchen Witches), and spend the night.

"If only I was in decent race shape," one of my running buddies exclaimed this week when told about our plans.  But what is decent race shape?  Do we ever stand at that perfect pinnacle of fitness at the starting line?  As our local Highlands billionaire Art Williams Jr. famously said (and wrote a book so titled):  "All You Can Do is All You Can Do, But All You Can Do is Enough!"  There is a limit to how much we can prepare yourselves.  After a certain point, on race day, we just have to wing it.