The “taper crazies” are a well-known phenomenon among athletes in the days or weeks preceding an endurance event. You hyperfixate on the forecast, scrutinize the body’s sensations that could indicate injury or illness, toss and turn at night, triple-check your gear, invent impossible worst-case scenarios, and obsess over details that you cannot actually control. Even experienced athletes can be surprised by how psychologically unpredictable the days before a race can feel. When you are in the throes of this unique form of anxiety, it can feel distressing and uncomfortable. Many athletes may interpret these experiences as problematic or a sign of weakness. They start to feel anxious about being anxious. However, anxiety preceding any major event (particularly one involving uncertainty and performance pressure) is a normal psychological response. The more you have invested in the process, the more you care about the outcome. Instead of wrestling with pre-race anxiety, a more helpful starting point is to ask: What are these nerves trying to tell me? “This Matters to Me” Anxiety is often a sign that …