October 29, 2010

Eight days until the 100km Haney to Harrison

This morning I went for another easy one-hour trail run with my dog Luka. The sky is filled with fog, as lingering rain is lit up by the sun trying to peek through the thinning clouds. Yellow, brown, orange and red leaves cover the trees and the trails. A fresh start to the day.

I've been working on writing 100 reasons to run 100km, aiming to come up with 10 in each of the final 10 days until race day. I am filling about a page on each one. As of now I have 28 reasons and 6,775 words. Perhaps a small book in the making.

I don't need a reason to run the 100km other than that I feel I am ready to try and that it is an exciting prospect. But it's good to remind myself of the many reasons I have to lead the lifestyle of a runner, or ultrarunner.

Tomorrow I am meeting up with a friend, and her dog, for another easy hour run on the trails. I've also got a Sunday run planned with friends and strangers. Next week I plan to take it very, very easy. It will be a week of walks, hot baths, and rolling and stretching muscles. There will be lots of sleep and focus on hydrating well.

Rethinking other races I have done that have taken me between 10 and 12 hours including the STORMY 50-miler and five Ironmans (my fastest was 11:12), I have decided to keep my nutrition and hydration very simple, like in those events. My staple foods will be energy bars and gels, while my drink of choice will be water - and defizzed Red Bull in the final third of the race if I can stomach it.

Like in STORMY I will probably bring a few electrolyte tablets too. I will also prepare bags of pretzels, peanut butter sandwichs (on white bread), boiled potatoes with plenty of salt and keep Twizzlers handy with my crew. But that should do it.

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