39 Days to Go - Giving into the urges
Hey I tried something new today. I ran. Amazing. I didn't even forget how to do it.
Thus since I've had two runs in the last nine days, and the knee is still recovering, naturally I signed up for a last minute/impulse 50 miler.
I had really been wanting to get one in, just to have the mental confidence that I can go that far. The longest run I've had in training so far has been 40 miles, and that had some mental toughness boost that came with it, but...I'm just feeling like I need a little more.
Thus I signed up for the North Fork 50 mile trail race. Somewhat like the last ultra I tried, this one tries to play down the difficulty, and even suggests it is a good choice for your first ultra. OK. Whatever you say. It basically is fifty miles of trail running, with approximately 7200 feet of elevation gain. It is essentially half the distance and half the elevation gain of Leadville. Of course it never goes above 8600' in elevation, so you don't quite get the altitude sickness and pulmonary edema risk that you get with the race across the sky, but I feel like it should be somewhat similar.
It is also looking like I might be joined for the last 19 miles by one of my pacers for August, Mr. Try Running. I normally try to avoid running with ridiculously fast people like him, because it makes me sick to my stomach, especially when they are all humble about it. However in this case I will make an exception. As long as he is willing to pack a satellite dish and portable refrigerator with chilled beverages during the Leadville run.
I'm a little hesitant about running that long of a run only five weeks before the main race, but I would be trying to do a long run anyways, and hopefully some success here will build up the mental toughness quotient. Hey, I might go crazy, make the cutoffs, finish the race, and even be able to call myself an ultramarathoner. That would be pretty kewl...
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