WinterFast

This is my race, cold, snow, short, perfect. Winter Blast is the one race I can count on to be in my sweet spot for races temperature wise. This will be the fourth year running it and the previous three all have been good times for me. I call it my race because it's one of the few times most people know me, as the guy in shorts.

Well, the one thing I'm known for isn't working today and I'm essentially the Invisible Man. This global warming thing is no joke! Instead of standing out in shorts, the people wearing pants are the odd ones today. The announcement made prior to race start, the temps today are more than the first three years temps combined. So much for my one advantage.

Prior to start, struggled with finding my zone. In what has become an almost regular occurrence, I'm alone again. No buzz from the Superstars, no outrageous requests from CT (out of town), just me.

Waaaaarm goes the gun.  The first four miles were fairly uneventful. Worried a little about the wind, but didn't seem to notice it any in these miles. Somewhere around mile four, got a little demoralized as a guy caught me from behind and powered ahead. Even though I felt good, felt fast, wasn't expecting to get passed so easily. Confidence returned as I watched him make the turn for the 10K, that makes more sense.

In the long straight away, I finally cheated and looked at my watch as it chirped for the last mile. It clocked a 6:45 mile, for my mile seven. Runner fuzz logic was definitely active, first thought was damn watch isn't reading right, figures. Mile eight chirps, 6:48! While I knew I was working hard, I couldn't figure out how I was clocking miles this fast, that's almost 5K pace.

Mile nine, cleared the fuzzy runner's logic, turning into a full force headwind. Awww, that explains a lot. Here's the payback for all those easy miles. The final miles were nothing easy, knew it was going to be close for a PR, but it was going to have to be earned into the wind.

The next four miles, all the glorious miles with the wind at my back, gone. The real work started here. At no point did the extra gear show up and I wasn't even sure if or how close I'd be to my PR I'd be, mentally just told myself to keep going and see what happens.

Last curve the clock came into view and knew I had it. One of the running coaches this year shared a TED talk explaining the benefits as to why runners throw their hands up crossing the line to signal their accomplishment. It's never crossed my mind before, probably because I'm always too tired to have any energy to even bother. This time, it did feel like an accomplishment to PR a time that I didn't think I'd ever be able to top. Arms raised, finishing strong!

Foolish is as Foolish Does

The Kal-Haven Trail and I have quite the history. Soon, it will have another story tied to the both of us. I must be out of my mind, for what I'm about to say and do. Moments ago, committed to running the whole thing as my first ultra marathon! The same trail years ago, I dreaded riding a bike for the whole distance, now is going to be covered by foot (maybe even by hands and knees).

How did I get suckered into this? One word, and you've already guessed it, CT. The girl who doesn't want to do marathons anymore, because they are hard, for some reason doesn't have an issue doing ultra marathons instead. How foolish is that? Common sense flows strongly through me, almost like the Force. I know my limits, I thought I could resist, in the end I couldn't. CT worked her magic and planted the seed, and that's all it took.

She planted that damn thought in my head, then slowly backed away. My mind took over and before I knew it, I clicked the button and signed up, becoming foolish. For somebody who falls apart every marathon at or around the twenty mile mark, going even further seems like a receipt for disaster. Why didn't my common sense come to my aid? Simple numbers. Turning thirty-five, made a goal to run a 5K. This ultra marathon, is a 50K. In five years (okay dangerously close to six, but still forty), in my mind, it translates into getting ten times better. Common sense loses to being able to say something cool.

Don't have a clue how to train for this, so this will be an adventure. My plan is to modify my most successful marathon training plan by adding miles to it. Instead of running back to back sixteen and ten mile runs to equal marathon distance, changed it to a twenty mile run followed by a thirteen mile run to simulate the thirty-three miles of the trail. Will this be good enough? Only time will tell.