Western States 100..... maybe 2011

Had a pretty good week this week as far as running goes. I was able to run back to back to back 10 milers along the lake (Michigan) during my lunch break at work Wed-Fri. Friday was very cold, and of course – I forgot my gloves – so my hands were numb. But I did get a chance to meet the ‘Hi Guy’ during my run on Friday. He’s a fixture along the lake year round, and at most of the area races as well. He was riding his bike along the lake as he normally does year round. It was quite windy so he was moving a bit slowly (With so much stuff strapped to that bike it certainly isn’t very aerodynamic.) and I caught up to him around North Ave beach.

He introduced himself and he basically paced me for the next 20 minutes as we chatted until his face was so frozen he could barely talk anymore and decided to turn his jalopy back to the north and ride with the wind instead of against it. Very interesting fellow to say the least. Said he has run over 160 marathons, and runs most of his races in sandals…

Saturday I decided to run as much as I could at my home training course – Silver Springs State Park - with a goal of 35 miles in mind. No particular reason, just wanted to get back out there and get a good long run in before the end of the year, and also wanted to get my confidence back and get back on track after my screw up at the Ozark Trail 100 miler a month ago. After that race I decided to relax a little bit and try to focus on my family. I have been able to do that, and my wife was willing to let me be gone for the majority of the morning to allow me to get it out of my system.

When I woke up at 4 AM and the temperature was about 15 degrees. I started my run at around 5 AM and by about 7 AM the temperature had dropped to about 10 I think. It was COLD, that’s all I know. My bottles were freezing up, but I stayed pretty warm other than my face. By the end of my run it was hard to get my eyes to focus on anything because I guess maybe they were frozen. But I finished 32 miles in about 5 hours. Not too bad considering I made plenty of “aid station” stops at my vehicle after each loop.

Although it was very boring doing about 12.5 loops by myself, it felt great to get back out there and get some good mileage in after a brief respite.

So the drawing for Western States 100 was last Sunday and I didn’t get drawn. So… My race schedule for 2010 is looking like this right now. This is pretty much a wish list, so changes will happen –

*Illinois Fat Ass 50k (Pacer for my wife?)

*Three Days of Syllamo Ultra Stage Race

*Kettle Moraine 100 mile

*Superior Sawtooth 100 mile

*Chicago Marathon (For UPS for DownS charity group)

*Ozark Trail 100 mile