Finding My First 100 Miler – August Update

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2 weeks to go:

Well the time for training is over and with less than two weeks to race day what is done is done. No training is going to now get me more ready or prepared for race day than I already am. The key is prepare, keep moving but take care of myself and don’t do anything that risks injury.

August was the start of the reduction in distance. I had a couple of races (half marathons) to do and training happened around that.

I thought the HMs would be a good way of measuring how my training had increased my strength. My first HM was a 1:32 trail half with some decent hills. My local race. The second was the Big Half in London which I got a PB of sub 1:24. So things look promising – the PB was more than a 5 minute improvement on last year in the same race!!

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Preparation

During the month I have thought a lot about race day. I’ve had the dream in which I win 🤣 and I’ve had the dream in which I DNF. Im targeting something in between !!!

I’ve spent a lot of time preparing fuel strategies. I trained with a 250Kcal an hour policy after the great Gary Robbins recommended it.

So I have then planned my fuelling strategy on the day to this.

I’ve gone all geek on it and put a spreadsheet together, using a planned pace and therefore duration, and then mapped calorie intake to it. I’ve broken the race into section between checkpoints, bagged food up and labelled it. I can access my drop bag at approximately 20, 50 and 80 miles so will have food in there to replenish, so I don’t have to carry the food for the whole race from the off.

Gear

I’ve pulled together the obligatory list. It’s mostly complete and its below:

Packing

I’ll be using my 8L Salomon vest and a waterproof bag for my drop bag. I’ve test packed, and repacked.

Food

I have tried and tested food that I know I can stomach, that has served me well on my long training runs over the spring and summer.

Taper

I’ve cut the miles back and resisted the urge to just run when rest and preparation is the key.

Ready?

Well maybe! As much as I ever will be!

Race day is less than 36 hours away right now.

I’m in those final few moments of a 10 month training program. The time has come.

I keep looking back at a quote that I found from John Kelly (@randomforestrunner) which I think is one worth bearing in mind:

‘Don’t be afraid of failure.And measure success not by the outcome, but by how far you’ve come.Set a long term goal and then pick smaller ones based on how much closer their attempt will bring you to the big one.If the attempt is a “failure” then so be it.’

John Kelly, Endurance Athlete. From jamesrunsfar.com

I have already succeeded. Completing the race will be a wonderful bonus.