These words were said to me today by a wise man and may be the best way I've ever heard to sum up ultramarathons.
Today I went out the Cat 8 run in the southern end of the Massanuttens. It was in the 30s and raining for almost the whole 5+ hours I was running. As we were climbing up a steep grade and were cold/wet with almost 4 hours of running left, he imparted these words of wisdom.
Despite the rain, mud, cold, wet stream crossings, snow, ice, 29 miles, and 6.5K feet of climbing, I actually had a pretty good time today! I felt great the whole way, ran strong, and had some good company along the way. I also got to explore some new trails today, as I haven't run as much on the southern side of the Massanuttens.
I ran with a guy named Dave for most of the run, and we had a few other guys running with at various points. Dave's is one fast dude! He's on the waitlist for MMT 100. Hopefully he gets in this year, and I'm excited to see what he can do there.
Dave and I finished up together at around 5:09. That was way faster than I had planned to run, especially since I haven't been out to the mountains in 2 months. The guy who finished a bit ahead of us was actually running his first ultra. What a day to start! Apparently he ran the Philly Marathon in November and posted a 2:24, which was good for 2nd place. Almost 20,000 people run Philly! Insane. That is one fast mother.
Running has been going really well in general for a while now. I've been getting in some solid long runs including a 20 miler in 7:13s. I've also been hitting the track with the DC RoadRunners and running some of my fastest workouts after not doing any speed for a while. So far I'm hitting 80-90 miles most weeks.
2010 is off to a great start so far. Hopefully I can keep it up!
Today I went out the Cat 8 run in the southern end of the Massanuttens. It was in the 30s and raining for almost the whole 5+ hours I was running. As we were climbing up a steep grade and were cold/wet with almost 4 hours of running left, he imparted these words of wisdom.
Despite the rain, mud, cold, wet stream crossings, snow, ice, 29 miles, and 6.5K feet of climbing, I actually had a pretty good time today! I felt great the whole way, ran strong, and had some good company along the way. I also got to explore some new trails today, as I haven't run as much on the southern side of the Massanuttens.
I ran with a guy named Dave for most of the run, and we had a few other guys running with at various points. Dave's is one fast dude! He's on the waitlist for MMT 100. Hopefully he gets in this year, and I'm excited to see what he can do there.
Dave and I finished up together at around 5:09. That was way faster than I had planned to run, especially since I haven't been out to the mountains in 2 months. The guy who finished a bit ahead of us was actually running his first ultra. What a day to start! Apparently he ran the Philly Marathon in November and posted a 2:24, which was good for 2nd place. Almost 20,000 people run Philly! Insane. That is one fast mother.
Running has been going really well in general for a while now. I've been getting in some solid long runs including a 20 miler in 7:13s. I've also been hitting the track with the DC RoadRunners and running some of my fastest workouts after not doing any speed for a while. So far I'm hitting 80-90 miles most weeks.
2010 is off to a great start so far. Hopefully I can keep it up!
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