For reasons that will be impossible for me to explain, and presumably for anyone to understand. I signed up to run an Ultra Marathon. 31.1 miles. This Saturday. On a nature trail mostly covered in snow in the middle of nowhere. I am out of my mind, I know. I have been signed up for this for a few weeks now, and am eagerly anticipating it, and petrified of it at the same time. I have been training rigorously since, but we shall see what I am made of come race day. All I can say is I went with my gut, and even though the farthest I have ever run was a half marathon before, somehow, someway my body was telling me I can do this.
There are only two checkpoint stations during the race. From what I understand, each station will have a medical staff there examining each racer as they pass by, and even if the racer persists on continuing it will be up to the staff to decide if they will continue or not. In all likelihood, I will probably only make it to the first station, maybe the second before walking away. These are incredibly extreme conditions I will be running in. From what I hear on the event's Facebook page, a lot of the race will be a slog, through a trail made primarily from snowshoes. The second half of the race has numerous sets of rolling hills making for a more challenging race. To top it all off, on my safety waiver I had to sign, I was forewarned of possible cougars in the areas. A coworker also familiar with the area of the race told me to be on the watch for packs of coyotes too.
I have been primarily running outside in the cold the past month to prep up for this. My friend Adam went on a couple training runs with me this week with some nice elevation changes over the course of 9 miles. For some real preparation for the hills though, I found a part of our mammoth city dike system along the bike path and ran up and down it for a half hour. My legs felt like spaghetti, but I think those were some extreme training scenarios to go through so whatever the slog is like come Saturday will hopefully be a lesser experience.
I have bought a ton of gear to make sure I have all my bases covered. We were required to get Gaiters and Headlamps. Gaiters make sense and I am glad I got some for however deep some of that snow is to trudge through. I will be wearing two sets of socks, with my outer layer being a heavy duty set of calf high socks. The trail is marked by flags, but in a worst case scenario in the event we get lost for several hours is what the headlamps are for. I also picked up a glow in the dark vest just in case. Also purchased a waist belt holder for a water bottle, a ski mask, and a outer glove liner for my running gloves. Finally, I picked up 8 gels to help replenish calories and energy throughout the run.
The weather looks like it will be fair in the area, with highs in the mid 30s, and come race time the temp will be in the mid 20s. It will actually probably be the warmest weather I will be running in this year thankfully since it has been a much colder March than last year. Last year we had temps in the 40s and 50s this time, and right now the warmest I have been able to run in recently was only 33 degrees a couple weeks ago. At least it will be a hell of a lot better than running in zero degree weather last month. I will still be wearing two tech tees and a windbreaker, so I will be plenty warm.
Look, I know my odds of finishing this are not promising, but something deep down is telling me to go for it. Call it whatever you want, but I am sick and tired of running away from challenges most of my life, so even if I do fail, at least I know I had the heart to try. Keeping up with my glass half full outlook on life, finish or not, at the very least this will be considerably effective training for the half marathon.
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