50 miles... seriously?

OK. I signed up for the Gore-Tex 50 Mile race of the North Face Endurance Challenge on June 2 in Washington DC. The race website says 39 days until race day. Seriously?

The race starts at the Algonkian Regional Park, then runs on the Potomac Heritage Trail through the Riverbend and Riverview parks and onto the Great Falls park for 3 tough loops and returns back though the trails to the Algonkian Park. I really did not intend to have a training plan for this race, but my friend Heather who is thinking about signing up was looking up for plans for 50 milers, before she signed up (which is obviously the right thing to do!)  It hit home when I saw her post. I have to have a plan if I am going to finish this thing… I am going to have to work on it, but some people have posted some useful links when Heather raised the question on dailymile I liked this one particularly; since I am geek... but I know I won’t follow it… in fact I should have been in week 13 of 18 if I was to follow it. It does call for a 50K this Sunday… it won’t happen…

Race Reports

A lot of my runner friends already know that I listen to Phedippidations quite often. I was listening to episode 140 today with race reports from Boston when Steve Runner gave a special emphasis at the end about the importance of race reports and that it is always great to read other runners race reports as each one of us has her/his own perspective on any given race; and he continued “… When you write a race report, you are not just doing it for yourself to memorialize the event. You are doing it for others, passing on your observations so that they can incorporate into their own and form an opinion as a way to better understand the event so that they can improve their performance on race day.

It is not enough to just run the race, or even run it well. You have to tell others about your race. Race reports are a big part of the process of running, racing and competing with each other. Runners help each other by offering advice and telling our stories so that when the rest of us line up on race day, we will have an impression as told by others of what to expect. It is called “Giving back to your fellow runners"

Well, I never saw this point of view, but I agree... and I do owe my fellow runners my report from the Knoxville Marathon ;)

Don't fight the trail. Take what it gives you

Rest in peace Caballo Blanco...

Michael Randall Hickman, later known as Micah True and better known as White Horse or Caballo Blanco was a simple man who became a living legend for ultra-runners after Christopher McDougall published his book Born to Run. Caballo passed away last week while out on a routine 12-mile run in New Mexico. He was on the way to Arizona from Mexico. Along the way, he stopped off at the Gila Wilderness Lodge in New Mexico, a place he visited many times. On Monday, he went for a 6-hour run with Guadajuko, a Mexican mixed breed he had adopted and called "the ghost dog". On Tuesday, he decided to do a 12-miler before hitting the road. Guadajuko's paws were sore, so Caballo left him on the porch with a bowl of water and told the innkeeper he would be back in two hours. It took search parties 4 days to find him as he did not give any indication which direction he would go. He was finally discovered by the side of a cool mountain stream not far from the lodge. His death is still a mystery. Everyone came to look for him in those days, including Chris McDougall, Scott Jurek, Kyle Skaggs and other friends. His friends, tweeted remembrances of his passing…

His race, the Copper Canyon 50 miler in Mexico, has grown beyond even Caballo’s wildest expectations – on March 4, 2012, more than 400 Tarahumaras and 100 outside runners participated. Here are a couple of links for the 2010 race:  Race Report   Pictures

I learned a lot from the book but the biggest advice I took from Caballo is how to learn the art of running… this is what he said to the author in the book: "Don't fight the trail. Take what it gives you. Lesson two - think easy, light, smooth and fast. You start with easy, because if that's all you get, that's not so bad. Then work on light. Make it effortless, like you don't [care] how high the hill is or how far you've got to go. When you've practiced that so long that you forget you're practicing, you work on making it smooooooth. You won't have to worry about the last one - you get those three, and you'll be fast."
... I am still working on easy and light,  I don't worry about how high the hill is or how far I have to go