Stay Strong - Run Long

Where to begin....My 2012 Free State Ultra can be summed up by Charles Dickens when he wrote "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." and that is where the story begins. Race weekend started out like most others. Because I am what some people might consider to be a pretty "excitable person" I took all day Friday off from work to prepare myself. This involves going through my bags for the 15th time to make sure I have all of the essentials that I will need, and ultimately not use. This involves making sure I have my own first aid kits, enough energy bars to feed a small village in East Africa, all my knee braces, ankle wraps, plantar fasciatis prep kits and enough clothing changes just in case I have a "wardrobe malfunction" for the next 3 or 4 days. Some may call it neurotic, I just call it being a boy scout and always being prepared for anything. After a 4 hour drive, packet pickup, pre-race carb loading and a little soak in the hot tu...

With 2 weeks to go 'til the big day, my nerves are finally starting to set in. Did I train enough? Did I do enough long runs? What shoes am I going to wear? What am I going to include in my bags? Should I take bags? YADA YADA YADA. But overall my concern hasn't been about the race. I know what the course is like, I've been running the trails more in the last couple of weeks now that they've dried out, and I've been training...differently. I don't know. There is almost a calm about the race and more nerves on the planning. If you've followed me for any length of time, you know that I'm not a very high mileage person. My mileage through 04/08/12 is only sitting at 413 miles YTD. Comparatively I have pretty low miles, but lately I've been feeling pretty strong. I still have been walking the hills on the trails, but my road/gravel hill runs have proven that I am getting stronger every day. I'm not fast, but I feel that with proper hydration/nutrition...