We'll this is it. I have been looking forward to this for a year and a half. I am competing in my first big ultra marathon. I am heading up to the mountains of West Virgina for a moonlight run on Cheat Mountain. The race starts at 9pm Friday and we'll run through the night. Flashlight? Check. Batteries? Check. Vaseline? Check(don't ask).
I have competed in five 50k races so far and I have run four or five marathon distance training runs but I never got over 33 miles so this is going to truly shock my body. Especially since I usually cramp up so bad that I have to hug a tree to keep from falling on my face around mile 20. I hope to go slow and have as much fun as I can while running 50 miles. I have also blocked out the fact that when I finish, hopefully in under 11 hours, I will have not had sleep in over 25 hours. Fun!
Look for lots of Twitter post this weekend and another blog post about the run. I am of course going to carry a camera/video camera. After this maybe running 100 miles in 24 hours will not seem so scary. But that's something to look forward to next year. Gotta do one step at a time.
