You mean everyone doesn't do this?

5@5

5@5

"I can believe anything, provided that it is quite incredible." - Oscar Wilde 

4x1200 @ 5:20 pace (4:00/1200) + 200 @ 0:32 to even out the 5k - time to get my fat and lazy rear end back in shape...

"The world stands aside to let anyone pass who knows where he is going." - David Starr Jordan 

...and I just ran across this on the Ultralist, so you get extra bang for your quotation buck today...

"You will learn a lot from your first 100 miler. Foremost being that it is a long way and the difference between 100k and 100 miles is a lot more than 38 miles." - Fred Thompson

(all 100 mile veterans can attest to this, and aspiring 100-milers will eventually come to grips with the simple fact that a 100 mile run is so much more than two 50-milers back to back...)

"And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down.  Without the rain, there would be no rainbow." - Jerry Chin 

...easier said than done.

pray hard, y'all.

"The true traveler is he who goes on foot, and even then, he sits down a lot of the time." - Colette

mile repeats - is there a better way to spend an evening?

5@5

orion and the pleiades winked at me this morning (i told them i was just out for a good time and wasn't looking for anything serious...)

"He may be mad, but there's method in his madness.  There nearly always is method in madness It's what drives men mad, being methodical." - G.K. Chesterton

to ultra, or not to ultra; that is the question.

nashvilleultra.com

Sometimes you just want a good long run.

This was, for the most part, my motivation for entering this race. Given my recent training, or, more accurately, lack thereof, I had no business entering an ultra; on the other hand, given my natural proclivity toward such silliness as "long" running, ill advised or otherwise, I had no business not entering an ultra. That being the case, when my alarm went off at 3:45 Saturday morning, at which point I knew I had to make a go/no go decision, my vocal choice was, "ah, what the heck..."

(I hope I didn't wake anyone upstairs...)

The two hour drive to Nashville went by rather pleasantly, and as I registered I went through the standard mental hoops of convincing myself that "it's not really thaaaaaat far..." (Truth be told, it isn't; I ran the 50-miler here last year and pansied out this year, opting to drop to the 50k distance...).

With between 5 and 10 minutes to the start, I stripped off my thermal layers, hoping that the 37 degree morning would warm up significantly, lest my shorts and t-shirt apparel prove unwise. Soon enough, though, the race director yelled "Go!" and off we went.

Within a few minutes, the pack had broken up, and I struck up a conversation with a couple of guys toward the front. Johannes and Arras (not sure of the names... I'll have to double-check when they post up results on the race website...) were from out of town, and Arras was competing in his first ultra. They were both in the 50-mile division, but we were flying through the first 10 or 12 miles, which was most likely fine by them; they both appeared to be pretty highly trained runners and mentioned that they had trained rather extensively for this race. I opted not to tell them that I was out there on a whim. As much as I enjoyed running with them, at around the 12 or 13 mile mark, a combination of their extensive training and my almost complete omission of such trivial issues as training convinced me that if I wanted the second half of this run to be anything more than a death march, I probably ought to slow down, so I eased off the throttle and watched them bound off into the distance to get the top two 50 mile spots.

The second half of the run was mostly just slogging through to finish. At one point, the course deviated from what it was last year; I thought this would be a nice portion of the run since it took us onto some trails, but given my current lack of trail-fitness, all the off-road accomplished was breaking up any rhythm I had, and try as I might, I never got it back.

Don't get me wrong; I enjoyed the rest of the run, but I never got the speed back, so I just kind of jogged it out. Coming into the finish, I remembered my signature finish from last year, and entertained the finish line crew with a nice jump and heel-click to cross the finish line. The winner, who had shown up at the starting line bare-chested (in 37 degrees...) and had put a mile on Johannes, Arras, and me by the halfway mark, blew away the old course record, nailing a 3:3x, which is a solid 50k time. I spoke with him briefly afterward, and he informed me that he's looking to have a good showing at the JFK 50-miler in a few weeks. I would wager that, barring anything unforeseen, he should do well.

I hung around the finish area, chatting with other finishers as they arrived, before finally convincing myself to hop back in the truck for the 2 hour drive back. All in all, twas a good day. I got what I wanted out of the race - a nice long run and some time to just be "out there."

all for now... back to the real world... i guess...

(I'll post any pictures as I find them...)

another dose of mile repeats.

in the pouring rain.

lightning all around.

no place i'd rather be.

[4xmile (5:44, 5:41, 5:40, 5:36), 1/4 recovery, 2.75 w/u, 2 c/d]

"I always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific." - Jane Wagner 

"By a curious confusion, many modern critics have passed from the proposition that a masterpiece may be unpopular to the other proposition that unless it is unpopular it cannot be a masterpiece." - G.K. Chesterton 

sometimes you just wonder

Got to love the little bits of irony in life.  Like having "life" hit the fan during the few weeks of good running weather, thereby effectively preventing any real training.  Awesome.  (I know, I know, sounds like a cop-out excuse, but trust me on this one...)

More irony:  I truly think I can get a more consistent running routine in whilst in Australia, for which I leave in two days, than at home.

God has a sense of humor.