Ultra Preview

With my second Ultra Marathon, Woodside Trail Run with Pacific Coast Trail Runs, a day away, here is a quick rundown of what is on the horizon.

Normal workday scheduled for Friday, 9-5, followed by having dinner and staying the night at a friend's house (who is also our training coach). After a pasta dinner and an early bed time we will wake up in the morning for our normal event morning routine — for me it is a light stretch and a bowl of cheerios. Then we'll hop in the car, pick up 2 other runners and make the drive to Woodside for an 8:30 a.m. start. The event is sold out with 475 runners total and 125 doing the 50k.

Four out of our five will be aiming at completing the 50k and the fifth will be embarking on a 10k. For me, I have no goal time other than to hopefully finish around 6-6.5 hours and injury free. But if it takes longer (or shorter), I'm O.K. with that. I'm simply approaching this as a very long training run. Right? Running over 31 miles should make running 26.2 easier... well, that's what I keep telling myself.

Course Description: Experience the towering redwoods, lush ferns, and beautiful trails through Huddart Park, King's Mountain, Bear Gulch, and Wunderlich Park.

We are looking at rain. Yes, rain. And since it is a trail run in the mountains, that most likely means mud. I've never run in the mud or done a mud run, so it should be interesting. If I slide down the hills on my belly, is that considered cheating or strategy? With a 4,530' elevation gain, there could be plenty of opportunities to take advantage of said strategy. Here is what the course map looks like, if you can make sense of it. I'll be relying on the course ribbons and hoping not to get lost.

Oh ya, before I go... check this out! Since this will be my second 50k ever, and my third marathon distance in 9 weeks, I decided to rock the RUN HAWK! I made that up. It's a mini mo hawk I guess. I always have my head shaved, not razor blade shaved, but short none the less and decided to grow it out for a couple weeks and make a run hawk. I'm hoping it gives me some extra strength and makes me look bad ass on the trails. Let me know what you think — more photos to come, I'm sure.