Even after 20-25 marathons, I’m not sure what my strengths as a marathoner are. But I must have one or two. Regardless, I certainly know what one of my glaring weaknesses is (or was): The final week. I’ve been absolutely terrible in nailing the seven-day countdown to marathon Sunday. Logic tells me this week should be the easiest part of the entire 14-week process. Logic is wrong.

Tapering has always been so hard for me to get right, that a few years ago I just gave up even trying. Rather than go through the sensible machinations the experts advise, all I did before the ’03 Austin Marathon was reduce my Sunday long run (seven days out) from 20 to 12. Nothing else. I ran my normal mileage all week before the marathon—even running six miles on Friday (when it snowed) and on Saturday—and went into the race more relaxed and centered than any prior marathon. And it paid off.

Maybe that wasn’t the only reason I ran well that year, but in every subsequent marathon since ’03 I said the hell with tapering. I’m not suggesting that every taper-free marathon has been a breeze, but the tapering part has been.

I’m running Dallas White Rock on Sunday and even though this should be my taper week, it’s just like any other week. At the very least, I can head up to Dallas feeling a little bit sane and without some of the pre-race anxiety that is so difficult to overcome. Maybe I’ll run well; maybe I won’t, but at least it won’t be because the taper and my head got in the way.

                                                             XXX

1. Christine Yarosh and Rick Slawsky are new to town and running their first RunTex Distance Challenge this year. Yarosh and Slawsky are both doctors and they are bringing the Medals4Mettle program to Austin. Medals4Mettle was founded three years ago in Indianapolis as a way for marathoners to share their race medals with sick children who have the mettle (or need it) to deal with chronic illnesses. Yarosh and Slawsky are hoping that AT&T Austin marathoners will join up and donate their finisher medals to these children. Each donated medal is cleaned and a Medals4Mettle ribbon replaces the race ribbon and then each medal will be awarded to a child at Dell Children’s Hospital. If you’re interested in donating your AT&T medal (or any other), you can contact Slawsky at rslaw6@hotmail.com or Yarosh at doctoryarosh@gmail.com. Race medals can be sent to: Medals4Mettle, P.O. Box 163447, Austin, TX 78716-3447.
2. Evil Evilsizer, the voice of Austin running, had surgery on Monday to remove all the plates, screws, duct tape and other paraphernalia that has been holding his body together for the better part of a year. The Evil One got the worst of a car accident earlier in the year and suffered a broken collarbone which has continued to bother him. He’s out of the hospital and promises to be at the Trail of Lights 5-K on Saturday where he’ll be thinly disguised as Santa. The voice will certainly give him away.
3.  Rogue Training is holding a raffle to raise money for its Malawi Project. Tickets for the raffle are on sale and will continue through December 14^th. There are plenty of great prizes and the money goes to this worthy cause. Rogue is also hosting a shoe drive at the AT&T Austin Marathon. For more info, contact Ruth or Leilani at 536-6971 or go to www.roguerunning.com and click on the Malawai Project logo.
4. This doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, but Reuters is reporting that after Adidas stock rose more than three percent earlier this week traders cited the scuttlebutt that Nike and Asics are interested in buying the German shoe giant for the unexpected rise in the price of its stock. What makes the rumor even more sketchy is that Asics and Nike would apparently bid together to the tune of $15.2 billion for Adidas. Hard to imagine.
5. Another rumor making the rounds is that Elite Racing has been sold. Elite, which owns seven of the biggest and best road races in the country, also owns the inaugural Rock ‘n’ Roll San Antonio Marathon which will be held next November. No word on yet who has bought Elite (or even whether the rumor is true), but stay tuned.
6. Speaking of Rock ‘n’ Roll, a team from RunTex headed down I-35 to the Alamodome on Wednesday for an organizational meeting with local charities and other interested groups. RunTex will be heading all the training programs for Rock ‘n’ Roll and will run the runners expo along with Soler Sports of San Antonio. The course won’t be finalized until spring, but, according to Roger Soler, it will not start or finish in the Alamodome.
7. The latest running social network to hit the web is www.runnerspace.com. Nice site, but looks like they’re trying to knock off our hometown boys from east Austin—Flotrack.com—who started this type of video-rich running site about a year ago. "We aren’t worried about them," said Mark Floriani of Flotrack.
8. Three buddies went up to Sacramento last weekend in search of PR’s at the California International Marathon and two of three came back pleased. Michael McNeal, 51, nailed his first sub-3 right on the button: 2:59:56 which was good for 11^th in the 50-54 age group. Roger Isern, 38, also dipped under the 3-hour barrier in 2:58:30 (30^th in the 35-39 age group). Greg Thomas, 42, was running great until mile 16 when his stomach cramped and he struggled in with a time of 3:12:20. Thomas recovered pretty quickly though as he was able to hit the local wineries on Monday.
9. The Texas Independence Relay on March 1-2 will cover 207 miles from Gonzales to San Jacinto. That adds up to 40 separate relay legs and each team can use anywhere from eight to 12 runners. The race announced that it will cap its entrants at 346 teams. For more info and/or to register, go to www.texasindependencerelay.com.
10. Our own running governor Rick Perry was an early supporter of former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee’s run for Republican nominee for president before jumping ship to back Rudy Guiliani. While Huckabee was still in office, Perry offered encouragement to the Arkansas governor as he shed more than 100 pounds through improved diet and running. The 52-year-old from Hope, Arkansas has run four marathons and is supposedly going to run the ’08 Boston Marathon even though his PR of 4:27 puts him well outside Boston qualifying of 3:35 for men 50-54. "I'm signed up for Boston and training," Huckabee told Runner's World in a recent e-mail. "Not easy doing that while running for President!" Huckabee says he’ll do Boston with Team Hoyt which consists of Dick Hoyt pushing his quadriplegic son, Ricky.
11. Allan Besselink of the Smart Life Institute (which is at the South Congress Athletic Club) has announced that his new book--Run Smart--A Comprehensive Approach to Injury-Free Running-- will be out April 1. Go to www.smartlifeinstitute.com for more info.

 Have any news for me? If you do (it doesn't have to be entirely true), email me: Wish@runtex.com