10 days till Terrapin Mountain

I've only had one race on my mind for the last 4 months. The Terrapin Mountain 50k. This is the race that showed me what it was like to run a long distance race in the mountains. I thought I would never finish but I managed to pull it out at the end. There was a point at about 25 miles that I thought I couldn't run another step but after some food and some walking, I took off again.
This time I'm going to attack some instead of conserving throughout the race. I'm not afraid of the course or the distance. I will respect the mountains as you always must respect any distance you run, even 1 mile.

I was looking at last year's race times and it takes about an hour from the start to the top of the first climb. Most of this time will be spent climbing. I hope to run a little more of that this year than last. After that it will be a game of survival. Up and down the other mountains in the area several times. Since Jan 1, I've run 315 miles and many of those miles were up and down hills. I feel very ready.

I am really looking forward to seeing my dad complete the half. It will be hard for him but he will get through it just fine I believe.

Life after 50, miles that is...

Well, since the 50 miler several things have happened. I did not want to run whatsoever after the race and I think I ate all I wanted for the next week. Then two weeks later I did something dumb. I tried to run the Roanoke Half Marathon at an all out pace. Roughly 7:30 per mile. I was pacing my friend Lee so he could get in NYC Marathon. It worked well for me till about mile 7 and then the bottom dropped out. It was hard to jog and even hard to walk. I was wearing my shirt from the 50 miler and some folks were looking at me like what's this guy's deal? He's wearing a 50 miler shirt and he's walking at mile 10 of this race? Anyway it was another two weeks at least before I thought about running. Lee finished with a good qualifying time. All together I didn't run but about 10 times between early November and Christmas I think. Of course deer season became the priority in November and December.

Then after Christmas, I started to pick up running again. I was ready to get back at it. After all that time off, I feel really strong. In every run I do, I feel good and strong. I'm still not any faster. I lost weight up until Christmas and then when I started running, I started gaining weight back. (big sigh). I'm still where I was but that is frustrating. All the snow and cold in January has put a damper on my training but I am hoping it will lead to a slow start that builds into something good. I'm already signed up for the Terrapin Mountain 50k on March 27th. I've run one 20 miler and several 10 and under runs. I need to get back into the middle distances of 10-15 miles. I'm also looking forward to the Great Greenbrier River Race in late April. I hope to do it with my family.

I finished last year with about 1300 miles running, almost 1000 biking, and almost 10 swimming. As far as Ultras go, I hope to do Terrapin 50k in March. I will try to do one in the summer, either a 40 miler or 50 miler and then do Mountain Massochist again in November. After Massochist last year it wasn't if I was going to do it again but how many times. As always, my favorite thing though would be to get my kids involved in running somehow. I try to involve them but I have to be patient.