In the Home Stretch.

I have 18 days before I toe the line at Javelina Jundred in my attempt to run over 100 miles in less than 24 hours. It’s unbelievable to me how fast the time has gone since I officially started training on May 31st. Those 40 mile weeks I ran early on slowly grew into the 50’s, then 60’s and so on until August when I hit my first 80+ mile week. Since then I’ve run two more weeks above 80 miles, finished in 9th place overall at the Flagstaff Trail Marathon, completed a 50 mile trail race in 10 hours and ran over 90 miles three different weeks, the last two weeks 90.70 and 96.50 respectively. Back in June when I looked ahead at my October schedule I wondered how I’d make it through this month, both physically and mentally. I’m now looking back in amazement at how strong I’ve become in both areas. It just proves how adaptable and incredible the human body is if you train it properly. To see someone else run the distances I’ve been running every day, to see someone else run 31 miles one day and turn around with a strong 13 miles the next in 90° heat or to see someone else run any of the mountain trails I train on daily I would say they are a unique and gifted athlete with special abilities. In reality anyone with the perseverance to stick with their (or my somewhat educated) training each day has the ability inside them to accomplish the same thing and more. You just have to want it bad enough and stay focused on the end goal.

So far as my quest nears the home stretch my map shows during this training cycle I’ve run enough miles to make it to the Mississippi River to the east, almost to Calgary Canada to the north.

During the next three weeks I’m going to slowly reduce my miles but keep the intensity at a high level. This coming week I’ll cut back 25% and run in the low 70 mile range. The following week I’ll cut back again to the low 50 mile range and then it will be race week where I’ll only run two or three days at 4-5 miles each (just enough to burn the nervous energy I know I’ll have).

Unless something unexpected happens I’ll send out one last update prior to race day. There will be a live internet feed of the race that I’ll share with everyone as well as I’ll have my wife update my website throughout the race so you can follow along. It will be a good way to experience some of the day with none of the pain!

Until the next time…have fun and be safe!

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