"For an occurrence to become an adventure, it is necessary and sufficient for one to recount it." ~ Jean-Paul Sartre

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Thursday, October 11, 2012

Run100+ : Kettle Moraine

Years ago before I started running and carrying on with all this endurance nonsense I saw an episode of Jeep World of Adventure Sports that featured the Badwater ultramarathon.  I was blown away.  I never knew people could run that far and in those conditions.  The voices in my head agreed that we should do that.  Not Badwater but that we should run 100miles.  The thought of doing it felt right.  I knew it would be difficult and physically demanding but it made sense to me for some reason.
I trained up through the usual distances and eventually ran a 50miler and a 50k, but then I got sidetracked and the 100miler was put on hold while I did some other awesome events.  I competed in several multisport events like Triathlon's and biathlon's,  I even joined an adventure racing team and competed in a couple 36hour races.  Eventhough I was distracted by all these other events the 100miler was still looming in the background but never forgotten.
I agreed to run a 100miler in 2013 with my friend Cheri and we chose Kettle Moraine for our race.  It fit with our timeline and has a reputation for being friendly to beginners.  Make no mistake my goal is to finish this race not attempt it, that being said I know that a lot can go wrong in 100miles and success is never a guarantee no matter how well you trained.  I am running this race as part of the 100+Project and I would hate to fail, so if I have to cherry pick a course and maybe run very conservatively in order to finish so be it.  I doubt very much that finish times will be on my mind when (if) I cross the finish line anyway.
I'm looking forward to all of the long runs that are coming up.  Some people like to hang out at bars with their friends but I prefer to do my socializing on the trail.

How I Registered for the Rock & Roll St Louis Marathon by Accident

In just over a month I will be running the Rock & Roll St Louis marathon.  Way back on National Running day (June 1st) RNR was offering a discount for registration.  In need of a Fall race to train for that would also be a springboard to running Kettle Moraine 100 in June 2013 I figured why not?  I hadn't run a marathon in a while and thought it might be fun to do a little PR chasing.
When I went to the website to register I was shocked by the cost.  Even with my $20 discount it was still $95!  Talk about expensive!  Now I wasn't certain if I wanted to run it anymore.  That's not entirely true.  I wanted to run it, but I didn't want to pay $95 for the priviledge.
I was sitting there with all my information filled out on the form.  Name, age, credit card, etc.  The debate in my head was going back and forth like a table tennis match.  Yes, No,Yes,No...and then it happened...my finger touched the track pad on my laptop and my fate was sealed.