So Linda and I have signed up for the Vermont 50K trail race in September. This will be the longest distance either of us has run on or off road. I had decided to focus on running this summer and skimp on the triathlon training. Then mother nature reinforced my plans by raining out the entire month of June and the biking and swimming have fallen by the wayside.
I was looking to do a trail marathon. Reading Born to Run and meeting some of the local ultra people around has inspired me to try my first ultra. I've done two road marathons in the past but just can't stomach the thought of running that far on the road theses days. There aren't many trail marathons around so I settled on the Vermont 50K. I'd honestly rather run an extra 4 miles on trail than 26 on the road.
Once I decided and ran it by the boss, she said, "Well you better get on the horn."
"You mean get on the ball, and start training?" I said (with typical spousal sarcasm.)
Thinking quickly on her feet, she came back with, "No jack***, get on the horn and start telling some people. That way you'll have to follow through."
So, thought I would put my goal on the blog. I'm sure training for this race will provide some good blog-fodder.
Linda had planned on doing the Maine marathon this year, but she's been enjoying her trail running so much this year she decided to join me in Vermont. We had to sit down one night with a calendar and literally spent an hour coming up with a schedule where we could both run four days week and maintain family homeostasis. Basically we decided that if we went to bed one hour earlier each night (essentially giving up one hour of TV) and got up earlier, it could work. After following the schedule for one week to make sure it worked we signed up for the race.
I'm resisting the urge to attach any time expectation to the race. My goal is to find a pair of trail shoes that allow me to maintain my barefoot/Vibram form on a rocky 50K trail, and to just enjoy the experience.
