Hungryland UltraAdventure
As promised, here are the fun details of my race on Saturday! Hungryland offers two timed options- the six hour Runner Gunner, or the 33 hour Jogger Slogger. I’m signed up for the longer option. We’ll have 33 hours to run as many, or as few, 14.3 mile loops as we want. Here’s the thing- you only get credit for completed loops. So if you complete three loops, go out for a fourth but DNF on that loop, you DNF the entire race. Okay, let’s do a little math! Four 14.3 mile loops would be 57.2 miles. That is NOT 60! It’s a conundrum, isn’t it? If I want to start a fifth loop, I have to either finish it (with 71.5 miles), or, if I drop out during that loop, I’ll have to take a DNF for the entire race. Hmmm. Assuming that nothing goes horribly wrong, I’ll finish four loops and then have to decide what to do. If I start a fifth loop I have to be pretty sure I can finish another 14.3 miles. If not, I figure I’ll run on my own, around the parking lot, until my Garmin shows 60 miles. My official race distance will show 57.2, but I think I’ll be satisfied with my own personal 60 miles. I’ll make my decision depending on how the day goes! Here’s some photos from the race website: WHY would they include this one??? Are they trying to scare us? The truth is- if it’s Florida and there’s water, there could ba alligators. But having 75 runners traipsing through should scare them away (right? RIGHT???) Anyway… deep breaths…today (Wednesday) is my day off and I’ll be running last-minute errands, picking up odds and ends I don’t already have (most of my gear is ready to go). I’ll also be making a special playlist, which I do for every race. The playlists have the names of the race for their title, so on a long run I can go back and listen to “Dunes 50K’ or “Skunk Ape 50” and relive parts of those races. This playlist will be called “Birthday 60” and obviously the first song will be the Beatles “Birthday” from the White Album. Any suggestions for my playlist?
5 Days Away…
Oh hi! I’m hoping you’ve stopped by to find out how I’m doing the week of my race. (Or maybe you’re here to link with Tuesday Topics, which I host with Jenn from Runs With Pugs.) Either way, thanks for indulging me! In my last post, Wendy left a comment saying “This is the calmest I can remember you’ve been before a race.” Yes- I’m excited, but not making myself crazy about this one. As a reminder, this race is on my actual birthday, my 60th. It’s definitely occurred to me that if something goes wrong, like I fall and get injured early on, I could be setting myself up for the worst birthday ever. Here’s the thing- this has actually happened. Two years ago, I trained for the Forgotten Florida 50 mile race. It was my first 50 mile attempt, and I threw every ounce of energy I had into training. I absolutely had my heart set on running this race, so much so that I wore a mask for an entire week before the race to insure that I wouldn’t get sick. It was my “dream race,” and then… eight miles into the race I fell, sprained my ankle, and had to drop out. It was the worst possible outcome, and guess what? I survived. Hobbling around on a sprained ankle definitely sucked, but two months later it was healed up, life had returned to normal, and I realized I really wasn’t any more or less happy than if I had finished the race. “Enjoy the process, because nothing else is guaranteed.” I can’t remember where I heard that quote, but my experience at Forgotten Florida really brought it home. Nothing is guaranteed on race day. I know that, so I’m just going to show up to this race and take whatever the day gives me. Of course, if the day doesn’t “give” me 60 miles, I’ll be pissed, but in that case I’ll attempt 60 miles another time. Meanwhile, my husband has started saying things like “Think about getting extra sleep this week”, “Have you ever tried visualization?” and ‘You should make sure to get enough electrolytes.” Ahem- YOU ARE MANSPLAINING. Oddly, I HAVE heard of the benefits of sleep, mental strategies including, but not limited to, visualization, and electrolytes. I know he’s trying to help, but…SHEESH. Well, I’m off to get a good night’s sleep! Come back tomorrow for more nitty gritty logistics about the race (are you tired of hearing about it yet??? I hope not…) Join us next week —> Favorite way to welcome spring? Link Up With Tuesday Topics Welcome back to Tuesday Topics, as Jenny, from Runners Fly joins Jenn at Runs With Pugs to co-host this link-up! Please join us every week for a new topic! Write on our weekly prompt or choose your own topic! Make sure to add your post to the link up, link back to your hosts, and comment on the other shared posts! You are invited to the Inlinkz link party! Click here to enter
Weekly Rundown- The Taper
Hey there! My race is less than one week away, which means this was a taper week. All that really means is there was no long run or anything extreme at the gym- my other runs, which are already relatively short, remained the same. Unlike other taper weeks, where I’ve been convinced my foot was broken or that my hamstring was separating from the bone, everything felt pretty good. Huh! No drama! Well, there’s still a week to go. Thanks as always to Kim and Deborah for hosting the Weekly Rundown. Here we go… Monday Hip stability exercises, and a 4 mile run. Tuesday Upper body strength, and Caroline Girvan deadbug workout.. She has a lot of great core workouts, but I still think this one is the best. Wednesday 5 mile run! Feeling good. Thursday Hip stability exercises, and lower body strength. I did this workout at home, as opposed to the gym, which means I used lower weights. Somehow I still ended up sore though! Friday Caroline Girvan stellar abs workout and 4 mile run in NEW SHOES!!! I got the same ones I’ve been wearing, Altra Experience Flow. This time I was delighted with the color (as opposed to my old ones which were white, orange and pink, arg.) I love running in brand new shoes- so springy! Saturday 4 mile run… and at night I did Adriene’s yoga for lower back pain. The squats on Friday tweaked my back a little, but nothing that yoga can’t cure. Sunday Sleeping in and rest. Now I start a week of intense planning and weather stalking. Right now, the forecast for Saturday shows a low of 56 and high of 78… which would be INCREDIBLE. Much better than I was expecting (for Florida at the end of March). However, we’re not there yet- we’ll see if that forecast holds. Let’s all cross our fingers are pray to the weather gods!!! In case you’re thinking “Gee, I wish I could hear lots more details about Jenny’s upcoming race” feel free to check back during the week… I’ll be talking about it plenty! How was your week? Do you have any races coming up?
And In Other News…
I know I said all I can think about is my upcoming race, but there have been a few other things going on! Like- wedding plans are underway! I’ve been emailing back and forth with my son’s fiancee, Isabel’s, mom, whose name coincidentally is Jennifer. She seems very fun and slightly offbeat, in the best possible way. When she talked about plans for the reception, she referenced the “dog party” from Go Dog Go. Sadly there will be no dogs at the reception, but it will still be a fun, joyful event. Jennifer also said she’s planning to wear a “formal-ish” dress, and maybe it would be fun if we could match colors? She’s leaning towards dark green. Wait. I thought I WASN’T supposed to wear the same color as the bride’s mom? I mean if she wants to I’m fine with it, but I’m not sure if she realizes-being a mere pup of 45- that I might have some special needs when it comes to dresses. I told her to send me pictures of dresses she’s considering and we’ll go from there. I’m very nervous about this! I’m sure it will work out fine, but it’s going to be a journey for me. In other news, I had to take Sylvie to the vet AGAIN. How many shots do kittens need? Lots and lots, it turns out. I’m realizing what a bargain it is when you adopt a cat from a rescue organization. I paid $75 for Foxy, and he had all his shots AND had already been fixed. Anyway, Sylvie, like all cats everywhere, does not like going to the vet, but she recovered quickly. In less stressful news, my daughter’s band played at MPA this week and received straight superior ratings, as we knew they would! Now she’s on spring break, and we’re both loving it. I can sleep later in the morning, which is perfect leading up to my race. Ha- I knew I could sneak a mention of my race in there somewhere. That’s about it! We’re looking at a pretty relaxing weekend. What are you up to? Do you have any fun or exciting news from the week? Do you remember the dog party from Go Dog Go? Top photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash