As time goes by

It’s already March; I haven’t been good at 7atStates updates!

Training is going good so far as now I begin to prepare for The Canyons 100k. This Corona thing has got me worried about flying out of SeaTac so I guess there’s the possiblity I don’t go. Scary stuff. Regardless, I know I’ll be ready to run Western with or without that 100k tune up on the course.

The Olympic Trials were this past weekend and Jim Walmsley was in the spotlight as a mega ultrarunning star going down to the marathon. I found it so cool and awesome that he could do this!! A 2:15 marathon 8 months after a dominant performance at the Western States 100.

Back in the early 2000s I had hopes of attaining the Marathon Trails qualfiying standard–which was 2:22 back then. I ran the Vancouver BC Marathon in 2003 and had what I felt was a perfect day, running 2:29.

That’s when I shifted to ultra marathons. Part of me just wanted a different challenge. Part of me still wanted to be a fast road marathoner–but I knew I would need to do something dramatic in training to drop my marathon PR by more than 7 minutes.

I remember thinking: Ultras sound extreme! If I could get myself to run 50 and/or 100 miles–to wrap my mind around going that far, then maybe I could train my mind and body to go shorter and faster as well. A 100 mile run at that time sounded way more difficult than a 2:22 marathon.

I ran my first 100, Western States, in 2005 after doing several other ultras prior to that. After that, I was hooked on ultras and my desire to go back down in distance dwindled.

Well this week, Jim (and Abdi’s performance as a Masters aged runner) inspired me to one day try a road marathon again. With all these new fangled Marathon racing carbon shoes, it seems like a perfect time to go after a PR anyways!

Of course it’ll have to wait until after Western States!

#7inSquaw