With the 50km Pick Your Poison Trail Run set to go on soggy (and perhaps loggy ...?) terrain I'll be embarking on my year of all-ultramarathon racing. It's been a pretty solid training season thus far, having focused my efforts on just banging out mile after mile and teaching/training myself to get out there even when I don't feel like it at all. My friend Steven Parke (a wise, competitive and very experienced ultrarunner) recommended to me that one of the things that I might consider doing in preparation for my first 100-mile race this September (the Hallucination 100) is to take a month to run every day. This sounded like a good idea, so I picked January (all 31 days of nasty-ness) to lace up and get out every day ... and then I did so again in March, and hopefully will continue to pick off alternating months comprised of 31 days. I feel like I'm beating up my legs pretty well, but so far no real injuries and mentally I feel like I'm becoming more anti-fragile.
But to be fair, this will not be my first registered race of the year ... earlier this month I participated in the MEC Barrie Race One (10k), but not running for myself. I had the privilege of being asked to help with MyTeam Triumph Canada as an 'angel', pushing my 'captain' in a race-specific wheelchair. My captain's name was Matthew, and as someone confined to a wheelchair because of a disability it was a special opportunity for him to participate in a competition that was otherwise run by able-bodied individuals. We had an absolute blast ... Matthew with his cowbell in hand, ringing it to cheer on other competitors and to signal to me when he wanted us to throw it into 'high gear' (at one point we even managed to chase down the race leaders! ... for a few seconds). I was glad to have my new pair of Reebok Floatride Run Fast on my feet as they seriously helped me recruit speed on demand, especially considering that I'd run a 20km warmup before the start of the race. :)
Captain Matthew has requested me as an 'angel' again for the MEC Barrie Race Two, which will be a half-marathon distance ... it's an honour to have been asked, and I hope to help make it another great experience for us both. As such my season will be peppered with non-ultra races ... or perhaps we can call those 'ultra-special' races, at least for me.
#sporttheunexpected #MyTeamTriumph #highgear #feeltheFloatride #RunNinjas #werunthistown
Way to go. I love the name - pick your poison.
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