“That’s gonna be a tough annual tradition to maintain.” This was my favorite comment from the Strava activity for this run. And it’s a point I’ve thought about for the last few years before actually taking on this challenge. Could I imagine running 40 when I’m 40? Or 50 when I’m 50??
A couple years ago I ran into a guy I know from racing who is simply a beast. He was just done recovering from a broken ankle when I bumped into him at mile 6 in a full marathon. Seriously, just 2 weeks out of his ankle support and he’s running 26.2 miles. Anyway, we ended up running 16 miles together and chatting about all sorts of running stuff. One topic we covered was birthday runs. He had done one on his 40th. A 40 mile run, all by himself. No other runners or race support to get you through. Just the water bottle and nutrition you carry and either gas station refills or circling back to your house or car for more supplies.
I was inspired. I was about to turn 30 when we had this conversation. But for some reason I didn’t take the plunge that year . . . nor the year after. But I thought about it a lot on both occasions.
This year I decided I had to give it a shot. And things came together to make it possible. First, I recently finished IRONMAN Chattanooga, so I have a good level of base fitness going. Second, the fall always inspires me to pick up running even more. In the past few weeks my focus has been to chip away at my goal of running 1,000 miles this year. With the cycling and swimming required to prepare for IMChoo, I was not doing much running any given week. Finally, my wife and daughter are in Germany for her business trip. This means I have a lot of free time on my hands and also wouldn’t be neglecting any fatherly duties if I wanted to go run around for five and half hours (not to mention the pretty much worthless state I would be in after all that!).
So it was meant to be. On Tuesday, October 25th, 2016, I set my alarm for 4:45am and got in bed well before 9pm. I read for an hour or so and then quickly fell asleep. After a good night’s rest the alarm went off and, well, the video picks it up from there!
Ok, so back to the comment. Is this now an annual tradition? I’d love to make it one. But I also realize that life gets in the way. My athletic goals each year also tend to vary widely. So who knows if I feel like building up to running 33 miles in 12 months? I may be super focused on setting a half marathon PR at the Monumental. For me speed and ultra-marathon distance running are pretty mutually exclusive.
Anyway, a final note about my run. My running time was 4:31:37. That’s right around an 8:30/mile pace. The elapsed time, on the other hand, was about 5:30. This is my way of saying that the Strava activity is not representative of how I could do in a 50k or other race nearing this distance. You’d have to add a good minute per mile (or probably more) to be more realistic. Hey, perhaps we can test that hypothesis this December at The Huff 50k or Jackson County 50/50. I am not registered for either at the moment, but they are both on my calendar so I don’t forget about them!
We shall see.
Cheers!
Chris