Monday, July 19, 2010

Decisions of a Mad-Man

Well, the SpeedGoat is only two weeks away, and I'm definitely excited to tackle this "most difficult 50K in America". The SpeedGoat's topo is pretty telling -



It's either up, or down, and steep either way. Last year I took a long slider on a steep section of trail and had to bail out after only 14 miles. Bailing required another 3 miles of walking back out, so I spent a couple of weeks limping around and being frustrated with my performance. So, with that wonderfully gnarly race pending, I found myself with the opportunity to run the BEAR 100 in September as my first 100-miler... and yes, I'm going to do it. Steve, Allen, and Dan from my office have already committed to pace me after mile 37, and my wonderful wife has agreed to be crew chief. :) I'm going to have to hammer the mileage at altitude after the SpeedGoat to prepare for this monster run. I'm already planning several Timpanogos runs in the 20-24 mile range, and of course dragging Steve, Allen, and Dan along for the fun ;) The best part is that I've finally committed to do a 100. It's almost cathartic to have that commitment behind me, and now it's just perparation. As always, I'll be blogging from the courses where possible (not an option at SpeedGoat due to the fact that only the first 9 miles and last 6 miles have any reception at all), so stay tuned in for notifications and videos of my next epic adventure!