The Kinda Sort Of Not Really But Technically I Am Tapering Period

According to my training plan my taper period started last Monday, three weeks to D-Day (aka Philly Marathon). I've tapered for races before, but this being my first marathon, I know the tapering period is much more extensive then, say, a half or a 10-miler. I've read all sorts of posts about how tapering sucks and people can't stand it or how it's actually really enjoyable and runners are welcoming the rest days, etc etc. So what are my thoughts so far on tapering?....What tapering?

The thing about tapering is that it technically means that you are cutting back on mileage. Looking at my last six weeks of training, I've kind of gone backwards. October-November was supposed to look like this:

Dates	Total
10/3-10/9	49
10/10-10/16	49
10/17-10/23	50
10/24-10/30	53
10/31-11/6	40
11/7-11/13	36
11/14-11/20	34

But instead so far it looks like this:

Dates	Total
10/3-10/9	39.5
10/10-10/16	25
10/17-10/23	11.5
10/24-10/30	26
10/31-11/6	40
11/7-11/13	36
11/14-11/20	34

Oops.

So instead of feeling like I'm missing out on tons of lovely, would-have-had-otherwise-if-I-weren't-running-a-marathon-in-10-days mileage, I feel like I'm finally making a mileage comeback after weeks of injury. It feels good folks. Good.

I'm sure come next week, as I'll be dong almost know running leading up to the race, I will feel the brunt of the taper. And I hope I do. I hope that come Marathon Sunday I'm so hyped with pent up running energy that it will easily carry me through 26.2 miles. That, or I'll burst out of the corrals and fizzle out after six miles.

I'm going to try and approach the next 10 days very carefully and intelligently. We'll see how far it gets me in the end.

Taper worries aside, I'm getting super excited about the race, especially because I get to see this awesome person in a little over a week!