Yesterday was a good feeling...I was tired, I finished my Western States Training Program (the major long runs) and took it to the barn for maintenance and final preperations. I am tired this morning. I thought back to January 1-the official kickoff and where I have gone since then. A lot of miles...some good and a few diffenently bad days...
So Monday was day 3 of the WS training run...Day 2 for me since I had finished the first two in one day. We had cool overcast weather as we met up at Placer High...I saw Rena for the first time in a long time and she was out for her second day. I met up with my pacer as well and we ran together all day. I missed out on seeing a lot of other folks that have been training all year long by missing them at the start...could not figure that out..Oh well. My legs where stiff and did not respond well at the start as we moved on to 3rd gate...I recalled the same from last year and as the day wore on I was fine. I was moving slow with some good sections and tucking in with a few other runners every now and then to keep the pace slow.
Allyson was one of those folks her and Sandra seemed to be chirping along the way and doing fine...I was pretty focused all day...not saying a lot. Just processing and thinking that this was it...all the hard stuff was over for the 6months...and where was it going to lead?
I still had one last goal and that was to move as fast as I could down from Cool on the trail to NoHands Bridge..I did it last year and wanted to see if I could empty out the tanks and let the quads burn...I was successful in pressing it hard down the trail..not out of control but fast and steady with some pick ups along the way...I was in better shape than last year (I better be!) I pretty much walked it from NoHands to the school the quads now felt it fine...
It has been a long grind and I was kind sad and also very glad to get to the finish and see the folks cooking out and the other runners that have gone through these months of training now taking it all in..I stopped and talked to some out of town folks amazed we all are gonna be on the line June 26....I will be posting more info as the days go by but its in the barn....the dream is about to become reality...Holy Cow an average runner is gonna be on the line....now all I have to do is finish that will be no small task!
Tony
I'm totally impressed with all of your hard work; preparing for this big race. Having so much willpower training, you'll slide right through on the 26th. Ok, maybe not that easy, but you'll do what you have been doing all while long. An average runner? Hmm...an "ultra" average runner!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Stephanie! How have you been. It's amazing how this has all gone down. I just saw the program and got all choked up....are you still running in Europe this summer?
ReplyDeleteI have been in hiding from the virtual world - or well...I am. And I've given up making any race plans, because we are moving back to NY in a month and I got a job starting then.
ReplyDeleteGot some tickets in that WS lottery....so watch out for the announcements for me;-) Who know, right?
Good luck with your final training runs.
Tony, me and Erik S. added some more hay to the barn tonight with a hill workout up in Auburn. Keep up the great work! Almost there! You are going to do awesome! I'm rooting for you!
ReplyDelete