Pre-UROC Thoughts

-Baldy in the Background

After a few weeks of quality mileage, I’m getting ready to toe the line against some of the best in the sport at the UROC 100k. The field is exceptionally deep, and the truth is that it isn’t even as deep as it could be. Maybe a dozen other elite runners could be in the race, but injuries and other races are preventing the deepest possible race on the face of the earth. Yet, here in the fall of 2012, this is the most competitive field yet to race a trail 100k. More talent is joining the sport every year as more elite athletes figure out the basics of competitive ultra running making these races more and more exciting. As with many other hyper competitive races, last year’s talent pool didn’t simply finish 1-10 as they were ranked pre-race. Human mistakes were made and opportunities arose for various runners.

I think what makes ultra running so exciting isn’t the mistakes of other runners, but rather the opportunity for any runner to put together a solid race. The distance makes us all vulnerable to making mistakes and also gives us the chance to be brilliant. One reason ultra runners tend to stick to running ultras is that chance to make something magical happen is always a little greater in longer races. The chance to play and do something incredible is what I’ll look forward to this Saturday in Virginia.

Sept 10^th-16^th

93 miles, 23,500ft.

Solid mileage: speed work, mile repeats, ran long at Baldy and Gorgonio

Sept 17^th-23^rd

60 Miles, 13,500ft.

Taper started, easy speed work, Vincent Gap to Islip in 2:01 and felt relaxed and solid. I definitely am noticing a pattern for my AC training next year: steeper/higher terrain every other weekend makes the AC course simple and straightforward. The terrain almost becomes.. fast.

-Blue Ridge

 
Com Truise - Helena Beat Remix