Run an ultra marathon!

This goal seems so far beyond me right now, but it would be an amazing thing to accomplish!

Yesterday I ran 50 miles at Berryman. I came in at about 12:23:xx. It was a great experience and I look forward to running many more.

Just over a month until Berryman. I am feeling half excitement, and half dread. If I were more prepared it would be 100% excitement.

I bought the shoes I am going to run in, Salomon XT Wings. Tomorrow I am going to take them out to the trails for a test drive. Last weekend I went out to the Berryman trail where the race will be held to get a preview of the terrain. I am a little nervous, but that is a good thing, right?

We are trying to turn this race into a three day weekend of camping, with friends and family. I really wanted alot of people to go to support me, but asking them to wait around that long is a pretty big request. I figured if there were other things to do while they wait it would be easier on them. Depending on the fire roads they might be able to meet me at different rest stops along the way.

It is not real until you are registered. I just registered for the St Louis Marathon in April and the Berryman trail run in May. Up until now the Ultra has just been an abstract idea, now it is something tangible and real, as real as the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. I was planning on doing some trail running tomorrow, now I have a little extra motivation.

More than 26.2 sounds do-able. Looking at a 44 miler (KC Brew-to-Brew) in the next years but don’t know how the “have a baby” thing is going to work out. Sometimes think I am crazy and could never do this but I always tell my friends that anyone can do a marathon if they want to and they train to so the same should hold true for me. :-)

The St Louis Ultrarunners Group has posted their 2008 schedule, and it looks like the Berryman 50 mile race is going to be Saturday, May 17. I want to do it but to be honest I am afraid. 50 miles is a long way. I still have some time to decide so in the near future if the weather is pleasant enough I would like to go out to the Berryman Trail to see what the terrain is like. I think the terrain is what scares me the most. The one thing I learned running the Wild in the Woods trail series is that, its not the distance that kills you on a trail run, it’s the terrain. However with a 50 miler it could be the distance also. So I guess if I can see the course I will be back down to only one unknown: Can I run 50 Miles? The cut off is 13 1/2 hours which works out to be around 15 minutes per mile. On the surface that doesn’t sound too hard. Well I guess we’ll see what happens.

I can’t wait until I’m older, I’m probably going to wait until I’m at least 20 before I even run a marathon, but I want to make sure that when I do its substantially sub 3 hours. I reckon I’m on target for it. But eventually I want to do ultras, because I’m just completely endurance. I just keep going. I’ve done up to 15 miles but worried about knees. But it’s something to make sure I keep it up. Once you’ve achieved your targets what else have you got left? One running dream atm. seriously long term though. Break world record for John O Groats to Lands End. Might create another thing for that… but don’t want anyone else getting the same idea:D

Maybe next year.