36 weeks to go, 54 miles and 2 intermediate goals
I have enjoyed my time away from writing this blog, since completing the London to Brighton 100km race at the end of May, my running subsided for a few months then I foolhardishly signed up for the Grand Tour of Skiddaw again at 5 weeks notice for the start of September. I managed to get round the 44 miles largely on residual fitness from a few months back and knowing the course from 2 years ago!
I have set 3 running goals for 2018 that are scheduled so that I can peak for the last of them.
The first of these is a race in Paris called Paris by Night. This is at the start of January and is 85km overnight. Whilst the nocturnal element of this will be a challenge, there isn’t the gradient required of other races I’ve done in the past. It is organised by one of the 50km Beer Ultra founders and I feel an obligation to finish, partly on account of the hip issue that meant I had to withdraw from the Summer edition of the Beer Ultra. Also that this is a ballot place I have managed to gain and there will no doubt be some rather pissed off runners who applied who I got in ahead of and I want to prove my getting the place was warranted!
Up next after this will be the 100km St Illtyd Ultra in Wales on the first May bank holiday weekend. This is trail based so will be a different challenge to London to Brighton. I volunteered at this race last year so am looking forward to seeing the organisers and other marshalls again. As much as I enjoy marshalling, it will be great to be the other side of the event this year. Finishing is imperative if I am going to have any chance of my main goal for next year though!
One of the most inspiring things I’ve come across recently was the Randy Pausch Last Lecture from September 2007. I stumbled across a Q and A 10 years following and figured it was worth seeing the original. The title of the lecture is “Achieving your childhood dreams”. This was essentially a biographical account of what he learnt from trying to achieve some of his throughout childhood and adulthood. The quote that stuck with me most from this was
For my main goal for this year, either a 50 mile finish in under 12 hours or a single stage finish of over that distance is required to be accepted as an applicant. Whilst I could pass this off as a brick wall, I understand for the safety of runners why they have that as a rule.
The race is called the Great Glen Ultra and covers 72 miles of the Great Glen Way in Scotland from Fort William to Inverness within a 22 hour cutoff. I have the best part of 9 months to train for this (it’s the first Saturday in July) and providing I can shift my weekly mileage from 50ish now to 70ish before the race I am optimistic about finishing. An added challenge for this race is the 1am start. Hopefully the Paris by Night race will have grown my confidence about that element of the race.
My training for this week involved 5 training runs but only consisted of 3 days doing them. I did a 7.5 mile route twice on Wednesday and twice on Friday. Then today I set off at 3am to complete an 18 mile route and finished off with a 6.4 mile run with my friend Paddy once it had reached a time “normal” people consider appropriate for running. These were within my comfort zone and I got some good practice with my head torch before the street lights came on which will be useful for the night elements of these races.
It’s one thing signing up for races only a select few are allowed into, its quite another not allowing yourself to be out of your depth when you get there!