Another day is in the books. It's beautiful and crisp outside, with a temperature of about 46 degrees. Sometimes it just feels right and today was one of those days.
My legs felt strong, my lungs were healthy and I actually enjoyed the 43 minutes out on the course. I had a nice finishing kick, lifting my knees and picking up the pace as I covered the last two or three hundred yards as I crossed the finish, with the Eagles playing "The Long Run" in my ears. Victory!
I took a look at the TRR course route and schedule yesterday after Willie tipped me off to a few changes to find that the race has been extended to 119.5 miles. It's only another 4.5 miles over the original distance, but I'm thinking that every inch is going to matter. The 6 stages are 20.9, 13.3, 24.2, 14.1, 23.6 and 23.4 miles respectively. Given a marathon is 26.2 miles, we basically get 4 marathons and 2 halves over the stages of the event. That's a lot to comprehend, but the scariest aspect might be that we gain almost a mile in elevation on the final leg (5,100 feet elevation gain & 20,800 feet in total). It's OK though. We'll still be fresh, right?
The distance made me return again to thinking about maximizing efficiency of motion and getting the most out of each stride. Form and mental toughness are going to be so important to our performance. Nutrition and conditioning are also critical to our success. This race won't be about speed. It'll be about survival.
As I finished running today, I heard the lyrics "Well, we're scared, but we ain't shakin'. Kinda bent, but we ain't breakin'." The Eagles had it right. As long as we stay healthy, we've got this.
My legs felt strong, my lungs were healthy and I actually enjoyed the 43 minutes out on the course. I had a nice finishing kick, lifting my knees and picking up the pace as I covered the last two or three hundred yards as I crossed the finish, with the Eagles playing "The Long Run" in my ears. Victory!
I took a look at the TRR course route and schedule yesterday after Willie tipped me off to a few changes to find that the race has been extended to 119.5 miles. It's only another 4.5 miles over the original distance, but I'm thinking that every inch is going to matter. The 6 stages are 20.9, 13.3, 24.2, 14.1, 23.6 and 23.4 miles respectively. Given a marathon is 26.2 miles, we basically get 4 marathons and 2 halves over the stages of the event. That's a lot to comprehend, but the scariest aspect might be that we gain almost a mile in elevation on the final leg (5,100 feet elevation gain & 20,800 feet in total). It's OK though. We'll still be fresh, right?
The distance made me return again to thinking about maximizing efficiency of motion and getting the most out of each stride. Form and mental toughness are going to be so important to our performance. Nutrition and conditioning are also critical to our success. This race won't be about speed. It'll be about survival.
As I finished running today, I heard the lyrics "Well, we're scared, but we ain't shakin'. Kinda bent, but we ain't breakin'." The Eagles had it right. As long as we stay healthy, we've got this.
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