100 Day Countdown

My goal race for 2020 is now just 100 days away. I didn’t know that until I received an email from the race organization this morning. Now that I do know that, I suddenly feel the need to go run. I’m feeling mostly excited and a little nervous.

My goal race is the Lighthouse 50 which starts up near Torch Lake, Michigan, on May 30th. The course travels along roads and trails up to the Petoskey Lighthouse. It should be a lovely, scenic run, which I thought would make my first 50 miler memorable and enjoyable. Here are a few other reasons why I chose this race:

1. The course, as I understand it, is mainly on roads and rails-to-trails type trails. Since I have no sense of direction, this should be easy for me to follow and ideally keep me from getting lost and ending up in Iowa. Seriously, GPS is the only reason I get to places on a regular basis.

2. This race also allows runners to be crewed and I’m grateful my husband agreed to keep an eye on me. I’m also grateful to have two friends and their spouses joining me on this adventure. The more people, the more fun it will be, plus the less likely I’ll veer off course.

3. We have a very generous cutoff time because there is a 100-mile component to this race. We will start our 50-mile journey just a few hours after the 100 milers start, but we have use of the entire course until it closes at noon the next day. Essentially, we will have 24 hours to cover 50 miles, which is way more than needed. It’s really comforting to not feel rushed to meet a cutoff time and we can take our time at aid stations or as we get gear out of our truck along the course.

At this point in training, I’m mostly feeling confident. I’m confident it will be a true challenge and there will be many highs and lows. I’m know that I’ll enjoy most of the miles and will need some attitude-adjusting for some miles too. My body may break down and tell me to quit, but my mind is usually the enabler. With friends and family around me, I’m certain I’ll keep on keeping on. Even if there are tears and lots of cussing.

I’m looking forward to seeing some very beautiful places in Michigan and spending quality time with my friends. Our conversations are usually entertaining and it will be nice to catch up on each other’s lives. I think it will be fun running in the dark and hope my lights last as long as I need them. I’ll have back-up gear. It should be interesting to see what foods are available at our aid stations, though we don't have many. I’m looking forward to eating lots of food during the race and afterwards, as well as copious amounts of post-race beer. Champagne sounds like a good idea too.

The winning cards in my hand include my ‘why’ and I have two aces. One is the Fxck Cancer community for which I will be fundraising all year. These are some of the most courageous, strong people that I’ve seen doing some of the most difficult things that I can even imagine. They are motivating and I feel stronger when I think of them. Please support these epic people by donating to Fxck Cancer through my special Fxck CancerDonation page. Your donation will help spread the word about early detection and provide a wonderful VIP-style experience for someone fighting cancer. My other key ‘why’ is hard to discuss, so I’ll save it for another day.

I’ve been planning this goal race and training for many months. It’s occupied so much of my time and I can’t believe we are counting down to race day already. I’m excited that I’ve pushed myself toward meeting this goal and a little nervous about pulling it off. So far, I’m pleased with my training, not bored or burned out yet, and still looking forward to my goal race 100 days from today.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Welcome to my running journey

Image
Welcome to my running journey Whether you are a new runner or experienced, welcome! I love meeting other runners and I hope that we’ll each find some purpose, peace and happiness through running! My husband Mike and I on a trail in the Florida Keys Running has taught me that I’m capable of so much more than I ever would have thought. Over the years, my confidence has grown, I’ve never felt stronger and I’ve found profound happiness in running. Even with all that, with life’s changes, I have found myself searching for something more. This blog site will highlight parts of my running journey and my quest to find my purpose and peace. You’ll read about my personal experiences with running – the good and the bad.  I’m not an elite athlete or very fast. At best, I’m a middle-of-the-pack runner. I don’t run to win, I run to finish. I run to enjoy time with friends, the course and the wonderful feeling of finishing a great race.  This blog starts well past...
Read more
Image
My Quest for 50 Miles and My Why I had my first mammogram at age 29. I found a lump. Getting the appointment with the doctor, the mammogram, then waiting for results was the longest week of my life. So many thoughts raced through my head - just like it does for many other women during a time like this. I’m too young, I thought. Cancer doesn’t care about age. I worried about my husband and our two babies. Cancer doesn’t care about loved ones. I’m blessed that my lump was a cyst. It remains a constant reminder to continue annual mammogram screening. Early detection will give me the best opportunity to survive breast cancer should my day come. Here is a photo of my daughter, me, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother back in 1998. You see five generations of first-born women, strong women and the most important women in my life. In the moment captured by this photo, we were celebrating the birth of my daughter. At the same time, my grandmother was going through treatm...
Read more
Image
The Epic Challenge – March 2020 My good friend Krista and I were chatting over a run, as we usually do, about doing a stage race. We both wanted to run a 5k, 10k, half marathon and full marathon over four consecutive days, but we didn’t want the expense of a Florida vacation to accomplish this crazy challenge. After discussing potential options over post-run coffee, we decided we’d do our own Epic Challenge. We completed our first Epic Challenge in 2019 while training for the KalHaven Ultra Marathon. Who would have thought we’d do this again in 2020? In addition to KalHaven, we are both training for the Lighthouse 50. The Epic Challenge sounded like a good training opportunity yet again! Epic Challenge 2020 started on Wednesday, March 4. We completed the 5k near Krista’s home just before sunset. I was pretty warm from my car ride down to her house, so I didn’t think to wear gloves. My hands froze in the headwind, but we were running swiftly and had tailwind on the way bac...
Read more