April 9th, 2011. A week of mediocre runs. Seems odd that after wrapping up the half marathon and determining the marathon was sixteen weeks away, I plunged right back into regular training without a break. Don’t recall this lingering ennui, but perhaps the marathon did truly drain my resources.
Had a thirty minute cruise on Tuesday and paced 7:50 miles, which I’m not complaining about, though things went the wrong direction afterwards. An 8:15 pace for forty minutes on Thursday was well behind the achievement a week earlier and you’d think the reduction in miles would see me rebounding with vigor? Friday was the first back-to-back session post-marathon…disappointing in spite of the anticipation that it wouldn’t be sparkling. Paced out at 8:20 even though it was another thirty minute session…sheesh!
Seems a rescue mission is required for my confidence, because I’ve formulated the next hurdle on the long road to Reunion. Perhaps in my next entry I will dwell upon recruiting efforts to secure someone to run with me in Le Grand Raid, which is proving another great challenge. The most promising candidate recently has been Paul, who bowed out of Reunion but has proven to be a fountain of knowledge on long distance running.
I’ve probably got ten years on Paul, who is the youngest brother of a couple friends I ran around with years ago. We never spent much time together due to the age difference, though we did hike the Knife Edge of Mt. Katahdin (another splendid hike that takes your breath away) a little over fifteen years ago. Knowing Paul ran ultra-marathons, I got in touch several months ago to tempt him into Reunion. Of course Paul has the nerve to be getting married this September, which has proven fatal to my designs --- despite the affinity for ultras shared by his bride-to-be. The main reason Le Grand Raid got nixed is because they will “honeymoon” before the wedding by tackling in the TransRockies Run this August…during which they will run between 13 and 23 miles for six days straight!
Casting aside my disappointment over losing a pair of potential running mates for the main event, Paul enlightened me to take the next logical step in the progression to Le Grand Raid à signing up for a 50-mile this summer. Several aspects of this appeal to me: I like the rough “double or nothing” escalation from half marathon to full marathon to fifty miles (and ultimately to 93), and; even if I never make it to Reunion, running a fifty mile race at the age of fifty has a nice element of poetry to it…
So the next decision is choosing one…and I was astonished at how many there are! Paul is tapped into many resources and passed along a wealth of possibilities. I was intrigued by options out west, but eventually selected the Finger Lakes Fifties in Central New York on July 2nd. Motivating factors are convenience on several fronts. Recognizing how tense I was prior to the marathon, choosing something closer to home reduces complexity and affords one less thing to fret over, and the dates work well. Vacation days for Reunion will pretty much bankrupt my vacation allotment and I should be able to accommodate the Finger Lakes Fifty by taking a single day off from work. Better yet, Paul might actually join me for this one!
So once again I’ve doubled the miles and have three months to prepare. Time to drag out the Frank Sinatra and start playing “High Hopes”…
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