There are just 19 days left until I take on my first 100 mile trail race: the Burning River 100. I've been looking forward to this race for about nine months now, and am very excited. To keep the actual race report to “reasonable” length. I decided to go ahead and cover my training and goals in this pre-race post.
Since I tend to train and then set my goals based on how well training has gone (Is that backwards of most people?) I'll cover training first. The first run I did specifically for Burning River preparation was the Freedom Park 24 hour run where I ran 100.5 miles in 22:33. After this, 100 miles was no longer such a mystical distance (though of course Burning River adds the challenge of trails and less frequent aid).
After Freedom Park, I knew I had seven months until Burning River—lots of time to get burned out or injured. So I made an unusual New Year's Resolution: For the month of January, I would only run when I wanted to, and never just because I thought I should. This led to very low mileage totals for the month (I think I did about 15-20 miles a week). Then it was February, and time to start training.
In the months February through May, I started working on adding back in some long runs and upping my mileage. But my training was inconsistent at best: a consequence of being busy with medical school studies and far enough out from my race that I could justify doing less. Luckily, I had registered for a few low key ultras in May and June (40 miles, 50 miles, and 50k) to run as training runs, which kept my laziness in check.
In June, I was finally able to find some consistency in my running. I ran two ultras and still kept my weekday runs going as well. After running Chattooga River 50K with Nathan for our first anniversary, I had two weeks left until starting my taper. I wanted to make the most of them, but I was not without soreness for the race. If you read Nathan's report, then you know that a shorter ultra like a 50K is just a way for a RD to make a more challenging course with the extra daylight she has available, so the race was tough.
The week immediately after Chattooga was amazing. Two days after the race, I ran what may have been a 5K PR—in a tempo run. Three days after that, I ran 40 miles in one day and only stopped then because I didn't want to be late for dinner. I ended up with 70 running miles, 5 speedwalking miles, and 2 weightlifting workouts—a really good week for me even if I weren't starting the day after an 8 hour run. I felt like I had traded in my legs and my lungs for a better set: I was invincible.
My feet weren't included in this trade though, and I ended up with pain in my left metatarsals—forcing me down to a meager 22 miles for the following week. The time off is helping it though, and I made myself a metatarsal bar out of moleskin to put in my running shoes to allow myself to limit the damage I incur while running.
Now it is taper time. Marathoners talk of “taper madness:” the mental difficulty of running so little during the taper period and worries that fitness is dropping. I've never experienced this because I've always been in school and needed the extra time to catch up on the studying I missed during peak training. But now, I've been forced into a four week taper when I'd intended three weeks, and I'm not in school this summer. My hope is that my foot will allow me a 24 miler 2 weeks out from the race, and that will keep my nerves settled.
In terms of goals, for a 100 miler my goals need to first be: 1. to survive and 2. to finish. To my mothers and grandmothers: the first is not in question. The second should be enough of an achievement on its own, especially for a first 100. But yet when people ask me what my goal is, I know they want an answer in terms of time. And so I tell them I want to run sub 24 hours.
If any experienced 100 miler runners are reading this, you may be thinking that a newbie ultra runner should just be trying to finish, and worrying about time is foolish and will only make me go out too hard and die off. So let me clarify: I will not be thinking about pace or time at all until I get to somewhere in the 50-70 mile range. Then, if I am in a place where sub24 is reasonable, I will absolutely go for it. If not, I'll re-evaluate and make a new goal.
But putting aside what my goals should be (to finish) and what people want to hear (time goal of under a day), my real goal is to have a good time, and I think that will be easy. Nathan, Heath and Ashley will all crew for/pace me and I know that'll be a blast. I can't imagine a more fun and more suitable crew for me, and since I'm not competing in the USATF championship associated with the race, I get to switch off between the three of them as pacers for the last 47 miles.
I'm also looking forward keeping up with three friends who are also running in the race: Mike Dacar, Lana Kovarik, and Robert Crosby. Mike, I believe, would be doing the race regardless of whether I was (and it will probably be a piece of cake for him after some of the stage races he's done). However, Lana tells me that I put the idea to do Burning River in her head, and she in turn talked Robert into it. So I feel a bit of responsibility for both of their entries. I've spent many hours running with Mike in Umstead, so it will be fun to run a few miles with and root for each of them throughout the race.
So for the next twenty days, I just have to avoid going crazy and get my foot back to normal. If you're interested, you can follow me, Mike, Lana, and Robert at this website: http://www.burningriver100.org/webcast.html during the race. And of course, I'll post a report soon afterward!
