Monday, May 14, 2012

Going Ultralong

The Snail is a good friend and a bad influence.  Let's hope he's a better race director.  He's stepped up and taken the reigns at the Pine Mountain 40 mile ultramarathon, and one text message was all it took to convince me to register.  Since pacing at the Umstead 100 this year I've been feeling the bug for trail ultras.  It's a weird counter-culture that can easily suck you in.  These strange people just love running through the woods for hours on end.  I get it, and it kind of scares me.  The race is December 2nd, so it goes on this year's calendar.

And in true CJ fashion, I'm not popping the trail ultra cherry with some sprite 50k (31 miles) or even waiting until next year's Umstead race to pace for 3 laps (37.5 miles) instead of only 2 laps this year.  No, I'm going direct to 40.  And it's not even a particularly easy 40, there are no loop sections where I can easily bail out.  It's a rocky out and back course of mostly single track with river crossings.  The only way out without finishing is by helicopter.  It runs along a ridgeline on this Pine Mountain park trail.  So you stay on top of a mountain for 20 miles, then turn around and come back.  Sounds crazy, right?  a 10.5 hour time limit gives me hope.  At least it's not as long as Ironman.

This is really going to kick off the winter marathons.  I'm going to be taking some time off after the end of triathlon season.  Between the Lake Lure oly "A" race in early August, possibly USAT Age Group nationals also in August, then the OBX half iron in September, I'll be ready for some down time and trail running in the fall. My payback for The Snail is to get him up here to pace Umstead next april, if I can talk him into it.  Knowing him, we'll each try to pace 4 laps or 50 miles next April.  Or he might get registered and do the entire 100.  I have no idea what else I will do between PM40 and Umstead.

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We had a great mother's day.  The kids and I made french toast and scrambled eggs for Kelley and served them to her in bed.  Bigun picked out Pajama Jeans and the Evil Genius got her a form pan for Cake Pops.  Of course that meant Sunday afternoon was spent destroying the kitchen and getting cake batter everywhere trying to make cake pops.  In true Evil Genius fashion, the cake pops turned out to be too big to stay on the plastic sticks that came in the kit, and the icing was a disaster.  The chocolate was too runny, but would eventually form hard, while the vanilla was too thick and just destroyed the cake balls.  And of course EG doesn't like chocolate, so the only successful pops were the ones she couldn't eat.  That's the story of her life if you listen to her long enough.  The entire kitchen got stuck in a clean, destroy, clean again cycle.  And guess who got to do the cleaning?

Dad did of course.  It was mothers day.  Well, Kelley didn't exactly wake up this morning to a clean kitchen, but I did a lot more than I normally do. 

Last week's training was really good.  I felt like it was the first week I've put in of really solid work in a long time.  Tuesday and Thursday I got in morning yoga, lunch runs, and evening swims with the RAM practices averaging 3000 yards each swim.  I wanted last week to be hard core because this upcoming week is recovery and taper for the FS 50 triathlon next weekend.  I can't wait to get back into tri season.

11 comments:

Georgia Snail said...

Nice work, bro! This is a great event, you'll have a blast. Let me know when you want to get some trail time in...I'll be running a good bit in SC this year while training for Pinhoti.

In regards to Umstead, as long as it is not the same weekend as Barkley, I'll do my best to get up there.

Kyria @ Travel Spot said...

40 miles!? Nice. I am still thinking about doing an ultra. Some days I think it's a good idea and other days, like Saturday, after running a half marathon trail race and being really tired afterward, I change my mind!

Sophie @ threetimesf said...

"The only way out without finishing is by helicopter"...Oh God! Have I told you before that I think you're mental?!!

Being Robinson said...

the ultra trail bug is hittin' the blahgesphere HARD. including me. i wanna! awesome you're gonna do a trail ultra. SWEET!

Unknown said...

Hey, if you are going to do an ultra... really throw yourself into it! :) Can't wait to hear how training goes.

raulgonemobile said...

That's killer. I love the idea of it. Can't wait to read about how you gear up for this bad boy.

Lisa from Lisa's Yarns said...

The only way out is by helicopter - YIKES! I have no doubt you'll rock this race, though. You are such a tough runner!

Sounds like a great Mother's day - well, minus all the mess cleaning up! ;)

Diana said...

That sounds like a truly bad-ass run! I can't wait to hear all about it and hopefully you have no pictures taken from "inside" the helicopter!

Kelley said...

It'll be a first either way babe. Either finishing your first ultra or your first helicopter ride, it's a win-win ;)

Wes said...

another one has been lost to us. GOOD RIDDANCE :-) If it was on my birthday, I might have joined you. It's the day after. I'm OFF THE HOOK! WOOT!!!

healthy ashley said...

YIPPEEEEEEE!!!! I wish I could join you. Nothing beats the beauty, challenge and ease of a trail ultra :)