When I first started trail running I was doing the shortest distances available, usually 25 to 30 K's. At these races were lots of runners who, after I had finished my race, were still running for hour and hours more. I'll never forget one time when I had really pushed myself to finish a 25K race in a good time. I was chasing down a runner and with about 100 metres left to go I sprinted towards the finish line and overtook him. The finish line was split into 2 sections. One was for the 25K finishers and the other was for those crazy runners who were running another 25K. I noticed that the runner who I had worked so hard to pass, was heading out for another loop. Suddenly the joy I felt in passing him turned to a feeling of amazement that he was heading out for another loop.
From that day forward I decided that I wanted to be that guy who was going out for the longest races available. This brings me to this year and my decision to run the 100 miler or not. The more I talk about it, the more it becomes a real possibility. I even joked with my kids about how Daddy will be running with bears and wolves in Haliburton. They both encouraged me to go for it.
What I need to decide, and rather quickly, is how far am I willing to go to get my goal? Physically I'm in the best shape of my life and barring injury, I'm confident that I have the ability to do it. The next part is the mental aspect of the race. Do I want to walk in the middle of the night for hours and hours? Do I risk injurying myself and then not able to run for months afterwards? These are questions I really need to answer this weekend. Once I commit, there's no turning back.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment