The Fireweed 400 is an UMCA event. There are 4 lengths to choose from: 50, 100, 200, and 400 mile races. I’m aiming for the half-century because it seems the most accessible of the four.

I can do about ten miles easily right now, but I’m not going to try to delude myself that I can do five times that in my current state. (If nothing else, the course of the race is curving, winding highway that goes up and down good-sized hills. I’d either die or have to abandon, and I’d really rather have “8:59:55.9” after my name than DNF.)

The other major thing I have to do is get myself a better saddle, because the one I have now is not so grate ackshully for plain ol’ in-town/recreational riding—fifty miles on it would mean I couldn’t sit down for a week at least.