Taper crazies: 100 times more crazy for a 100 miles

I have what is known in distance runner's circles as "the taper crazies" This is when you have trained for months and months running crazy long runs, late night runs, practicing for the big race and then a couple of weeks or so before it have to slow down/stop your training. When you have spent most of the last 5 months training for a big race like a 100 mile then when you are NOT training is when the crazies come out. Suddenly you have too much time on your hands. You start to look around your house and start to see problems that you didn't see before. You line and organize the kitchen drawers, go back and forth on your race plans, think seriously about faking a big sick day to get out of it, scour the weather channel as the days get closer;make lists of things you need for your drop bags then throw those lists away and make new lists. 
    You scour things online to see if you have missed anything in your training, you start to doubt if you have done enough. It is the time of internet creeping of Ultra pages and "how to run 100's" pages and seeing all the things you could have done better and differently. It is a time when worrying is an everyday occurance and feeling like you have made a grave mistake in judgement sits there in your face. 
   You try to find things to fill the time, getting your gear squared away, making travel arrangements, writing blogs about your cats, anything to get your mind away from the fact that in two weeks time you will be lining up at the starting line of a race that can take anywhere from 24 hours (RIGHT!) to 30 hours. You realize you will be running at night when you are tired, running when hungry and probably dealing with very dark "Nights of the Soul" while you are out there. It is inevitable that you will go through several thousand emotions in that amount of time. Heck I do that sometimes on an ordinary day!
   I got some Stephen King books from the library today. I like Stephen King. He is easy to read and I don't have to think much. I can dive into a story and forget stuff for a bit. Even though I am having trouble eating much at least I can read. I do force myself to eat because the muscles need it but food is some days the last thing on my mind right now. 

The only thing to do is muddle through the next two weeks, line up at that starting line and hope for the best. I have friends who will be there with me. I have the training behind me. I have the most interesting, hardest, amazing thing I will ever do in front of me. I just have to stay the course. 

And perhaps organize the hall closet.