Preparing for my first 50K race!

What am I thinking? In less than 72hours I will embark on my longest and toughest race of my very short racing career.

When I first got into running, the person who encouraged and influenced me me most was an ultra marathoner. She actually just completed her first 100 mile race a few weeks ago. I started off doing some races with her but while I was tackling the 25K variety, she was off doing the more challenging 50K races.

I always dreamed of what it would be like to put myself through this kind of a race. I recently completed my first marathon in May and was going to wait until the end of the summer to complete my first 50K but I remember her saying last year that the 50K in Niagara was fairly flat and not a bad course to attempt my first 50K at.

I did my last run today (11K at an easy 5:35 pace) and will spend the next few days getting mentally prepared for the race. My diet over the next few days will consist of some blueberry bagels, protein shakes, pasta, natural peanut butter, yogurt, pancakes and some granola bars.
The day before the race I'll have a big bowl of pasta with some parmesan cheese.
I plan on drinking 3-4 liters each day from now until the start of the race.
The race starts at 7:00 AM which means I have to leave my house at approximately 4AM. Thankfully a friend is joining me (I can't wait Theresa) and this will make the trip VERY exciting as this is her first 50K race too.

I completed a very nice talk at the Running Room in Whitby tonight and met some truly great people who are training for a 10K race in July. It meant a lot to me when they wished me well on my race. I also visited my "Mecca" which is the Running Room in Pickering. It was great to see Nancy, Miriam, Chuck and Maureen there. I am very fortunate to have such a great group of friends and they all wished me luck on my race. There's something magical about going into that particular store and seeing such a great group of people. Once I complete the race I'll be sure to stop in to tell them all about how I did.
Once this race is over I'll make sure I take some time off....................Until the next race that is!