Ambitious Race Schedules: Pushing Your Limits
In light of this recent post on the Scientific American blog, I decided to fill the rest of the year with interesting challenges. My heart is fine, damn it!
June- Bighorn 100 miler, Dayton, Wyoming
July- Grand Mesa 100 miler, Grand mesa national Forest, Colorado
August- Trans-Rockies six day stage race, Rocky Mountains, Colorado
September- Hallucination 100 miler, Hell, Michigan (planning on running barefoot)
October- Grindstone 100 miler, Swoope, Virginia
November- Chimera 100 miler, Saddleback Mountains, Southern California
December- Across the Years 72 hour race, Phoenix, Arizona
It will make for an interesting challenge. Spending all winter running in mountains will provide a good training base, and the varied elevation and technical trails suits my style of running.
Shelly and I will also be crewing/pacing for Jeremiah Cataldo at the Black Hills 100 and Jesse Scott at the Tahoe Rim 100 miler.
Anyone planning on running any of these races?
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14 Comments
Matt
June 7, 2012Is there any truth to that article? Or is it ok to run as much as I want? Since I just finished high school running, I was going to start running longer and train for these ultra distances. Dying is probably worth it anyway though, cause it is so fun XD
Shane D.
June 6, 2012If your ever up here in Canada, consider The Death Race in Grand Cache, Alberta. Its beautiful country and has its own unique take on the Ultra genre!!
Kai
June 6, 2012Looks like I’ll see you in September, October and possibly December.
Jason
June 6, 2012Kai, sweet! We’ll hang out afterward. I’ll go slow to give you time to catch a shower and nap post-race.
Rob Y
June 6, 2012That is a thick schedule indeed. I’m just not inspired by the typical races/venues anymore. 100 miles just seems like yet another waypoint to me on the way to bigger goals I’ve set for myself. Maybe I’m seeing the writing on the wall, don’t know, but I’m now finally making strides to realizing some of my dream goals that lie way beyond a hundred miles…
Good luck, that’s an ambitious race plan!
Jason
June 6, 2012I hear ya, Rob. Despite the schedule, I’m slowly losing interest in actual races. The climate is changing a bit (not for the better), and I find I like small informal group adventure runs much more. Part of my motivation is to see new trails in a convenient format (i.e.- support). Part of the motivation is to get in a much as I can before ultrarunning follows the same path as some other sports.
Adam Lawrence
June 7, 2012Have you tried backpacking? You can stay out in the mountains way longer than you can when only carrying weight light enough to enable running, and once you set up your base camp, you can run your ass off in the surrounding area. & the ruthless competitive element is virtually non-existent.
Rob Y
June 7, 2012Basically what I’m working towards but much lighter weight. Fast-packing or speed-hiking. Basically creating my own adventures and hitting the trail for days. Have a plan to do the Colorado Trail next summer if everything goes as planned. I speed-hiked the 335 mile Pinhoti Trail a couple summers ago and had an absolute blast. I was fully supported by friends and family then but now I realize I have confidence in myself to go much lighter weight and far less support. I’ve grown rather fatigued with the conventional race atmosphere.
Dave
June 6, 2012I must warn you Jason; if you run all of these races, you will definitely die. One day you’ll wake up and you will notice that your heart has stopped beating, and I’ll say “I told you so”. It may be 60 years from now, it might be 75, but I’ll be right, dammit!
BTW, Rush Limbaugh has jumped all over this article as evidence that exercise may not be good for you. He should know – he’s an expert in the field of not exercising.
Jason
June 6, 2012Rush is a dick. And bad for America. That’s all I have to say about that.
Brad
June 6, 2012WOW! That’s a crazy schedule. Are you running Trans-Rockies with Shelly or are you doing a solo?
Jason
June 6, 2012Running with Shelly. We were able to leverage some connections. It’s a damn expensive race, though. Looks like I’ll have to learn some more exotic dancing moves.
Jesse
June 6, 2012In exchange for your crewing services at TRT, I’ll show you the “pick up quarters with your ass” trick, just in case funds run low. It’s easier, but less attractive, with a hairy region.
Michael Helton
June 8, 2012If you can do that AFTER running your 100miler I will be most impressed!