Runnin is Donnin'

This morning I cranked out the last training run before the PM 40, an easy 3 miler to polish off the legs.  All the training is finished, and those miles in the bank will get cashed in on Sunday.  This sunday is the Pine Mountain 40, my first ultramarathon. 

It's now the time when I start to question my own sanity.  The Snail is the race director here, and after a simple text message from him I was signed up.  then I realized it was in Georgia.  Then I realized it was about an hour and a half southwest of Atlanta, not in atlanta.  Then I realized it was 40 miles.  and that's a long freaking way to run.

I've been getting lots of time in on trails to get ready.  Lots of good time in Umstead, with all the hills and rough terrain.  The PM 40 course is said to be like getting pecked to death by a pack of baby ducks.  There's nothing really obvious to overcome, so if you don't walk early enough you will burn out in the end. 

This is certainly what I've seen in my training runs.  When I finish a half iron triathlon, I usually feel like I could turn around and do it again to finish a full iron if I was trained right.  I never finished a 20 mile run and felt like I could turn around and do another 20.  I got in (2) 20's this training cycle and both of them finished with a direct run to the bathroom, shower, advil, and lots of napping.  I have been doing back-to-back long runs every weekend for a while.  10 miles every saturday to kick things off (ok, sometimes I would do a 5k race instead) followed on Sunday by a 15 to 20 mile long run.

Given the nature of the course and the fact that it's my first ultra, the primary goal is just to finish.  I want to see that finish line and get my fleece.  Second is to finish without crying or crapping my pants uncontrollably.  Actually it's ok if I cry.  All of my Saturday 10's were done at a sub-8 minute/mile pace.  Most of the Sunday longs were done under an 8:20 pace.  I know that's a recipe for disaster out there.  40 miles at a 10 minute pace average is 400 minutes, or 6:40.  If I come anywhere close to 7 hours I know I will have paced it too fast and likely will have the pains to show for it.  So 7 hours sounds like a good time goal.

Supposedly the trails are pretty covered with leaves, and there is water in the three stream crossings.  So this is certainly going to be interesting.  I'm going to run, walk, and hopefully not fall too many times for 40 freaking miles in the south Georgia woods.  Here goes nothing!