Junk Miles Repurposed – Or Accidentally Training for an Ultra

I’ve been running a lot of miles lately. A LOT. But it’s what I want. And that has been my goal this year. I am trying to focus on what is going to make me happy, and not what I think I ‘should’ do. The high mileage has had a price. I am currently not as fast as my potential. And my race times have reflected this.  Although I’m a little bit bothered by this. I’m not bothered enough to change the current situation.

Recently I came across this race announcement on our run group Facebook page.

It is a sign up for a timed ultra marathon. An timed ultra marathon is running event that lasts for a finite amount of time during which you run as many miles as possible.

Many members of our run group do one of these in December and always speak highly of it. And most of the people who do it are not the hard- core-run-100-miles-as -fast-as-you-can type. Which would be me also.

As soon as I saw this listing I was attracted to the idea. In keeping with my new goal to do things that will make me happy, I decided ‘Why Not?’.

Here are my thoughts on running a timed ultra marathon:
1. To do well, I think you should be in at least marathon shape.
2. I’m not. But I am in half marathon shape.
3. My strategy is to run the first 13.1 miles in a bit over 2 hours.
4. I think it counts as an ‘ultra’ (and thus qualifies for the car magnet) as long as you do more than a marathon.
5. This means I have over 9 hours to do 14 more miles.

I can do this!
Just as a test, last Sunday I ran 12 miles in the morning. And 7 in the afternoon. It wasn’t hard at all! Now I only need to add 8 more.

The other great things about this race is the venue. We did some running there this summer with the xc team and I really love the park

The race is 3/12, so not much time for any intense training….just enough time to look forward to a new experience/accomplishment! And in the meantime, I think I better get some new shoes!