189 Days Until I Run Western States 100

You know I'm a big, burly, basketball shorts wearing, half-bald headed, drama induced trail runner.  Its who I am. 

Oh yea, and I like to wear weird straps around my head when I run to hold up my nerd glasses too.  I'm fairly odd and I talk weird too.

But I do love to run trails and I've made it into my dream race of all time.  I'm crazy excited!

 

The short story leading up to this is as follows:

• Graduate College after playing football.  Gain more weight and end up slugging on the couch at 315 lbs.
• Watch the 2008 Summer Olympics Women's Marathon on TV in Beijing and decide to start running.
• Run 100 Feet and nearly die.
• Next day run 200 Feet and nearly die.
• Continue to do so until I could run 13.1 miles.
• Continue to do so until I could run 26.2 miles.
• Got bored of roads and "Googled" Trail Running.  Signed up for Terri Hayes 2009 Buncombe 34 mile race.
• Read Dean Karnazes "Ultramarathon Man" and dreamed of Running Western States.
• Fell in love with trail ultras and ran 35 more of them leading up to this post.

Western States uses a lottery system to pick the 300 or so runners each year from a pool of several thousand hopeful entrants.  Each entrant is required to complete a "qualifying" race that is suppose to provide some proof that they are capable of finishing WS100.

I submitted my lottery entry for WS100 and The Massanutten 100 lotto.  Massanutten is much easier to get into and I found out earlier that I made it into it as well.  Of course with only about a 10% chance of getting into WS100 I choose it.  Plus, it's my dream race of all time!  Oh, and Massanutten looks much more difficult to me.  It may be for the best to put it off until later years.

My original goal for this winter was to go down to The Iron Horse 100 Miler in Florida and run a sub 24 and it still is, but it's hard to keep myself from thinking ahead to this summer.  I was reminded by a friend that I should not look past Iron Horse and have a bad run there because that will hurt my momentum going into Western States this June.  I agreed so for now, its full attention on "The Horse".

I don't want to sound cocky or arrogant when I say this, but I'm not afraid of running Western States.  I've only finished two 100's which isn't much experience, but I refuse to let rhetoric or horror stories get in my head about the course.   I know there are long climbs, snow, heat, and rocks on the course.  That's why I'm going.

I heard story after story from Pinhoti about the huge climb up to Mt. Cheeaha, Blue Hell, and Horn Mt. - The Pinnacle.  Yes, these were significant climbs, but I refused to bow down to them and let them consume me.

I'm not going to give in to The Escarpment, the hot canyons, breath taking switchbacks or anything else that stands in the way of me getting to that buckle at the track.

I know this really means nothing from me to just say it without doing it.  I did learn from Pinhoti that my attitude going in would dictate my results at the end.  That's really all I have to go by.

I will show up at the start line in June in the best shape of my life.  I can't call out a finish time because my plan is simple.  To run within my means and to enjoy the course.  I don't want to push too hard and risk getting pulled at one of the many medical checkpoints.  So I will call out a Sub 30 hour finish, guarantee it.

I don't believe in "jinx" or "luck".  I do believe in hard work & results.

I'm excited about being randomly selected, but also feel that it is my obligation to train hard and represent the thousands of other runners who didn't get in.  Many who are much faster and deserving than me.

I imagine there are still some doubters who would like to see me fail or silently suspect that I will DNF.  Just like Pinhoti, I'm gonna prove you wrong again.  I'm not gonna get that drama going again, but will use the thoughts to fuel my training spirit.

So I will be looking at this profile map for the next six months.  Anxiously awaiting my finest hour to toe the line and embrace the suffering that will allow me to collapse with the buckle in my hand at the finish.

Wearing the basketball shorts....of course.





24 Hour "One Epic Run" Race Camp Croft Spartanburg, SC

My friend Joe Parker decided to put this race together and it ended up being a much bigger event than he imagined.  I remember talking with him two months before this run and he was guessing that maybe 10 friends would show up and run it.  Well, it looked like about 90 runners showed up to run!  About 20 of them were good running friends and I enjoyed spending some time together on the trails.

Joe just did an excellent job with this race and I would highly recommend it to any runner looking to enjoy a challenging 3 mile loop in the woods.

Training for the Iron Horse 100 in February forced me to use this one as a organized training run.  I was still able to enjoy 10X 3 Mile loops in about 7:30.  I would guess the elevation of each loop to be around 300 feet.  Plenty challenging as the race unfolded.  Not only were there hills, but snaky turns and plenty of roots & rocks.  I never got bored as the terrain seemed to look different on each loop during the day.

It was very exciting to see our resident ultra massage therapist, Denise, out for her first trail race ever.  She was planning on completing a 3 mile loop, but decided to go back out later and make it two! Doubling your distance on that rail is a lot to be proud of.

I started the run in my New Hoka One Ones and after 15 miles my butt was on fire!  It's going to take some time to get used to these so I switched over to some Asic Gels.  Within 5 miles I was cruising along, not wanting this run to end.  It began to get dark on my final loop and I felt absolutely terrific.  I had several 2nd thoughts about abandoning my training plan and running through the night, but decided to stay disciplined and stop at 30 miles.  I knew that this loop would get much slower and more difficult at night so that made the decision a little easier.

The biggest suprise of the race came as Joe was marking the trail with glow sticks for the night runners.  He handed me the phone and Dan H. was on the other side telling me that I had been picked in the Lotto For Western States!  I was in complete shock and thought that it was all a big prank until I got home and checked to verify that it was true!

I can't wait to run the Epic 24 again next year and hope to be at a point to go for the full 24 hours.