Hi all! Welcome to my first new blog location. This site will be for me to post my thoughts on training and running in Western States 100 mile Endurance Race. Though not till June 2010 I will need every day to prepare. I hope that you will contribute comments and suggestions as I move toward this life goal.
Call it a bucket list achievement but that is what it is. It does scare me a bit knowing what I have felt like when I have run only portions of the trail for 5 or 6 hours. Climbing up Devils Thumb and to Michigan Bluff have pummelled me before.
The image to the left is mile 97 of the Western States race. I would love to see this before the sun rises on that Sunday morning in June. I don’t know if that is possible but if I make it to Nohands I will be almost home. I will need a lot of support during this 18months of training. If you interested in running with me, being on my crew or pacing me on race day let me know…I know that seeing friendly faces on race day will be a big boost.
Why Western States now? I guess it all goes back many years ago..For some reason I recall reading about the race in Sports Illustrated back in the late 80’s . I was living in I think Ohio at the time and for some reason I recall thinking that 100 miles is cool. It fell to the back of my mind and then when I moved out to the Sacramento area in 2000 I was stunned to read in the Sacramento Bee that only a few miles from me was the Western States Trail! I had totally forgot about this and poof there it was again. SOOOOOO I immediatly went to the Auburn Overlook (after reading that this was a good place to hit the trail). Being way out of shape I had on my running shoes and found the overlook. Low and behold there was someone just getting ready to go on a run on the trail. I went over and asked her if she was going to run the Western States Trail…She said yes that she was doing a 15mile short training run on the coffer dam loop run..I thought Dang! 15mile training run…I said sure can I tag along…It turned out it was Rena Schumann!. Rena took me down the trail and was talking a mile a minute about the trial and all I coud do was say “yea” and “oh” I was dying! She ran with me to NoHands and I thought this is the bomb but I cant run any further..I left her then…Funny thing I did not see her for about 2 years then as all thing turn she started dating one of my best friends Mark Lantz and in 2004 I paced her at Western States for the first time…Since then I have run with Mark and Rena a ton and consider them best friends…Ok back to why…Well I have helped pace, crew and train with so many of my running friends it was time to test my own skills and run it myself. It does mean I need to alter some lifestyle and diet ways…oh and be consistant in training…
So join me in this journey and leave a comment or two…
No comments:
Post a Comment