Back from Corporate Land

I did a good job of recovering this week. No running on Monday due to all day meeting. I did get to the hotel pool after dinner and swam some laps and then sat in the whirlpool to work on my legs. Tuesday I got two miles in on the treadmill. No running on Wednesday due to driving home.
Today I want to run three miles. I'm sure it will be on the treadmill since it's currently raining out. The weather forecast for Saturday is a high in the 60's and a good chance of rain-oh well. That's probaly more significant since I will be waiting for my relay runner. I'm seeing some disposable clothes to wear on Saturday.
Actually as a ultra runner, I will probaly be more comfortable than most if I end up waiting around with wet shoes to run in. Many smaller race day problems and irritants just don't affect me like they used to. Wait an hour or two, the irritant may go away. That's the beauty of a long race!

Sunday's Workout

Isn't she so angelic? Fifteen minutes prior to this, she pounced, bit me in my nail-less big toe. As the blood started dripping, she then grabbed my sandal and ran through the barn with it. So I am hobbling through the barn, dripping blood, trying to catch up with her. Puppies. Sheesh.

I didn't run on Sunday, I had a blood blister under one of my remaining nails on my left foot so it was kind of tender, and the drained 'slug blister' on the other foot. So I did an hour on the elliptical at the gym. That was a tiring workout. Of course, it was supposed to be, as a back to back after the race Saturday. I also did a quality fifteen minute stretching routine too.

I was looking at comments on my blog and saw that Elizabeth had visited. I met Elizabeth at the YUT-C race on Sunday; actually I had seen her at some previous races too. It turns out I have read her blog on and off, it's cool to know anothe blog person out there!

YUT-C 50K Trail Report

I knew I was going to have a nice race when we turned onto a flat dirt path, with pine trees on one side, and water on the other. I was running a 50K in nature, in beautiful weather, and all was irie with me.
This was the YUT-C 50K, the Youngstown Ultra Trail Classic. Run entirely in Mill Creek Park, a gem of a park in the middle of Youngstown, Ohio. It’s a beautiful park. The trail follows around a river and several lakes; there are man made waterfalls on the river and several natural waterfalls in the woods.
I got to the race start a bit early, and Bob Combs, the race director asked me if I wanted to start early, another couple was taking the early 7am start. I had about fifteen minutes to decide, and since my gear was ready to go, I decided to. Instead of waiting around for another hour, I was there to run so why not?
Jim Harris graciously paced us out the first mile or so, through the little urban area to where the trail began beside some football fields and tennis courts. It was fun being out there at 705am, because it really was not very light out yet, and the tree cover was heavy. So Lisa, Dennis and I were pretty cautious and concerned about staying on the trail.
I got ahead of my running partners when we hit the “Monkey Hills”. These were some up and down trails on some pretty steep hills, about five in all, all one after another. But the footing was nice dirt and pine needles and no rocks, so that helped. At the top of one of the last hills was “ The Tree” that I had been warned about. It’s a tree blocking the path. On a 5’2” female, the tree comes up to my waist. My only way over it was to lie down on it, and roll over!
The trail continues to follow a river and lakes. It’s an old path; on one side are the woods, usually at a steep grade uphill. There are many retaining blocks of sandstone that probably were built by the WPA back in the 30’s. It’s all grown over and covered in moss at this time. I marvel at the hours of work it took to put all these stones in place. I am also impressed by the lack of graffiti in the park.
I come to a section of wooden boardwalk,
which leads to the old Gristmill, where the covered bridge and aid station is located.
I am the first runner through!!! (Remember, I started one hour early.) Everyone congratulates me and I laugh—it’s a good feeling to be first! I might as well enjoy it while I can!!!
I decide to keep with that theme, and try to gauge when the first men are going to catch me on the course. I believe I conceded the lead at mile 10. That was pretty funny. There were about 10 guys in the first fast group; about half of them knew me, and figured it out that I started early. The ones who didn’t know me gave me this “what the heck is SHE doing out here?” Oh well, I enjoyed it; they had a long time to figure out who I was and what I was doing.
It was fun running with the “Big Dogs” as I tend to call the front-runners. We get back to the race start, and then we run the same loop again, backwards. So now I was passing all the other runners coming toward me, and that was fun, I think I knew about 1/3 of the runners, and it’s great to hear a personal “way to go!”
I saw a bunch of roadrunners out on the road, and just kept shaking my head. They had a beautiful trail just feet away and yet they ran asphalt!! Freaks!! (I’m sure that they said the same about me when they saw my wet, dirt covered body.) I was crossing a road when I ran into two roadrunners, and tried to cajole them on the trails. They rather haughtily told me “they were training for a marathon”. Dudes! Excuse me! I’m just running a piddly 50K on rocks and roots!! Freaks!!!
I ran the first loop in just under three hours, and the second just under 3 hours also, which was very good for me. I conceded my lead as first female at mile 19. The last loop is shorter, 7.94 miles. As I got into the 3rd loop, I started to feel a little light-headed, a new trail feeling for me. I stopped and assessed my situation. It was a cool day, in the 60’s but high humidity because it was trying to rain. I had been hot on most of the course and doing most of my usual sweating. I had taken my last Succeed capsules on the last loop because I was starting to get a cramp in my calf muscle, and didn’t grab any at the last aid station. I also had not eaten much salty food in the last 3 hours. I also realized I had not peed but once on the run, very unusual for me. So I grabbed a gel from my waist pack, feeling that would have to help. The light-headedness would come and go a bit, but I knew the aid station was only about 4 miles away. I kept running and wondering when I was going to get to the hills. Did I miss them somehow? Ran them already and forgotten?
I hit the last time through the “Monkey Hills” and the third time was actually easier than the 2nd (probably because I was lightheaded!!!!) but my running kept getting slower on this third section. This course was very runnable also, no big chances to walk! The only time I get cranky is when I think I am hitting the last, final section, and it turns out that I forgot a piece that I still have to go through. I finally turn onto the park road for the last little finish and get cheered in by the other runners.
Bob shakes my hand and hands me a pint bottle of beer, from the Buckeye Brewing Company. I get cleaned up and spend another hour eating soup and pizza and cheering in more runners. We get a nice short-sleeved technical T-shirt and I find a pair of Dirty Girl Gaiters in my goody bag!!! Very cool!! I change clothes and when I take my socks off, I am puzzled to see a slug attached to my toe. Hmm, it's a rather large blood blister. I make sure I show it to all the other runners. Everyone is in awe of my blister and say it's a good one. I do remember reading that being dehyrdated can lead to more blisters. I think it's also time for me to try the Injini socks and see if that helps me out.

I enjoyed the course. It’s very runnable, a bit rocky, but not vicious hidden rocks. You just have to watch. Some parts had some roots. I thought the course was marked rather well. There were a few places, where, as a first runner of the course, I had to apply some common sense and keep a watchful eye for trail markings. I hope Bob and Team PR get the word out about this race; Mill Creek is a very nice and scenic place to run. Thanks Bob and the volunteers, the food was plentiful and the volunteers were friendly and helpful, I had a great time!

Off to YUT-C Today

Actually off to New Castle, PA, where my SIL lives. They won't be home, but are graciously allowing me to crash there for the night. Their house is about 1/2 hour from the race site.
Of course I can't find my cheapo watch that is 10 minutes fast, so I decided to go buy one today on my lunch break..and of course I have now realized that I get no lunch break today because I have to cover the department while I send most of them to a mandatory meeting scheduled weeks ago..So I will go after work, buy a new cheapo watch, puppy dog food, adult dog food, and I might as well buy the normal groceries while I am out LOL!!! I may never get on the road to PA.
I have been fighting a low level cold given to me by my husband (thanks!!) all week. I even left work early yesterday, and came home and just laid down and rested. I think I actually napped too, since the puppy was sleeping. I still feel a bit fatigued, but I'm going to eat well today and see how it goes.

I had an interesting point of view about running trails yesterday. A friend emailed me and asked what a FatAss theme run was. I told him it was basically just a fun run, no times, no aid, no whining, no wimps. He replied 'no aid and no times? That doesn't sound like fun to him'. Wow, that was interesting, until I thought about how my friend views running as opposed to how I view running. He is very competitive, does alot of short races, does like to focus on times and placing, and I, on the other hand, do not. I really am out there running for the sake of running in the woods. If this race tomorrow was a fun run, that would be fine with me. Sure, I like improving my times, and hope to get a bit better as time goes on, but it's more about just being out there and enjoying my health and nature.

Fall is here

The leaves have started turning yellow on some trees; the Buckeye Trees are already half-naked. The humidity is cut to 1/4 of what we are used to; I'm getting cold after being hot and sweaty on my cool down walk after a run.
I went to the gym and did about 1/2 my core workout and my new shoulder/upper arm workout; I'm tired of waiting for my arm to get better (it's been hurting for 4 months now) and I want to see my nice muscle definition on my upper arms again.
There were all sorts of children in the gym today. Not sure where they came from. Kind of distracting to me. I like to get in, work out, and leave. I usually BS with the owner if he's there, then split.
I went for a run. I wasn't really into it, but I knew once I started running I was committed to it. So I decided to run the uphill loop from my gym, which is about 0.8 mile uphill. It's a pretty gradual uphill, which will be similiar to my relay part of the Akron Marathon race, so I ran it.
I realized this was pretty good training for the race. But when will I have time to repeat it?
Maybe Thursday this week? Rest of next two weeks:
Wed: Cookout with local other ultra-runner couple
Thursday: hill run, maybe repeats?
Friday: No run. Drive to Youngstown to SIL house.
Saturday: Run YUTC 50K Race.
Sunday: Recover and pack for business trip
Mon, Tues, Wed: go out of town on business trip. Find local running stores. Get into a pool or whirlpool to recover from 50k
Thursday: Day off at home
Friday: Day off and pick up stuff for relay at Akron. Meet up with other relay members. Have fun!!
Saturday: Run 5K section of Akron Marathon. Then run the rest of the way in, another 7.6 miles, so I will get in 10 miles at least. Drink beer and recover with teammates.
Sunday: Back to training for the Masochist 50+ miler. Argh!

Dog Run

I got my ten miles in this morning. It was a very foggy misty morning here.
I picked up a running companion about mile 4. A dog jumped off the porch of a trailer and insisted upon accompanying me. I have no idea if he lived there. He ran with me for a good mile, then stopped to fight with another dog running free.
About my turning point, a goofy yellow lab pup came running out to the road to run with me. I had to run up their driveway before the pup decided to stay home.
I then picked up my running partner again, but finally was able to get him to stay in the area that I found him in. I was not going to have the dog follow me all the way home!
We then took all three of our dogs out for the daily hike around the property. It was Condi's inauguaral walk-and she did it all, about a 1/2 mile walk! She's sleeping now.
We're taking her with us on our trip north, we have a steak roast with Dennis' veteran group. The house isn't dog proof enough, and we're not totally comfortable leaving her with the other two dogs yet.

I love running

It was a busy busy day at work. Then I changed into my running clothes, and presto chango, I had energy again!
First I had to do my core workout at the gym, then left from the gym for my little 'around the block' 4 miler. I've been running this in reverse, and I don't hit the 1/2 mile hill until mile 3, which works out nicely, my legs are warmed up by then.
It felt so good to be running again. I hadn't run since Monday, and I was getting the pent up emotions/frustrations from not running. I don't know what else to call it-impatience, maybe? I just was itching to get out there and run.
My Garmin died on me, and I had no watch, but I had the iPod and cranked up the tunes and ran. My legs felt good, other than these knots in both quads I still have.
It was a very good run. I felt good, I ran up the hill, I was happy, I was burning energy out there. I get so much more relaxed after running.

Does anyone follow IronWil and her Ironman training blog? Wil timed out at Ironman Wisconsin, and she is posting such a well written blog of her DNF you really should check it out. She's a very good writer, and it has been inspiring to follow her training through the season. Reading blogs and listening to podcasts really kept me focused during my injury of last winter.

I'm becoming interested in the 100 mile race of Haliburton for a fall 2007 race. I met the RD, Helen, at Mohican this year, and I have read some very positive race reports from this year's race. It's just an idea right now, but it seems like a cool fall 100 mile race for the Eastern coast. It doesn't seem like we have that many fall 100's here in the east.

No run today

The husband was sounding a bit despondent when he asked me when I was coming home today from work...it sounded like he needed a puppy break. So I bagged the workout, which was fine, and came home and cleaned house while he took the two grown up dogs out for a hike.

Condi!!!

Race Photo

It was raining nicely when this was taken, hence the hat on. I'm smiling though!!

Serendipity??

I get home tonight, after the gym, and see a truck pulled into our driveway. My husband is just going out to see who it is--we get lots of lost souls out our way. He is chatting with them, and I join them.
This family is lost. They are looking for a German Shepherd breeder in the area. What a coincident. So are we!!!!
We point the family in the right direction after getting the phone number ourselves. I am barely in the house when I grab the phone to call the man. He lives 15 minutes away. He had German Shepherd female puppies, ready for home.
We're going to visit tomorrow. Hey, is that serendipity or what? Lost people looking for German Shepherds who just happen to stop in our driveway??

Back to running content...my quads are so sore even with the ice bath. That's what aggressive downhill running will do!!
Even worse, at work, I have a meeting on the third floor of a wing of the hospital. The elevator is out. Oh no. That means I have to walk down the stairs. My fellow managers got a huge kick out of me gingerly going down the steps, one by one.
Well, I had a 10 mile run planned for the day, and I knew that wasn't going to happen. I changed at the gym, and started out. Ouch. My quads felt like cement. I was barely shuffling along. I think a kid on a bike passed me. I kept shuffling, kept going forward, waiting for my muscles to wake up and split apart from the massive tree trunk thighs.
As I kept going forward, warming up, sweating, everything but the quads were feeling fine. I thought about something either Horton said in his DVD or at his talk (or probaly both): "Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional." I immediately felt better after thinking about this! Was I in pain? Yeah, a bit. Was I suffering? No, not at all. Was the pain bad? No; it was more of a discomfort really, not worth cutting my run short. I even started smiling and enjoying my shuffle-run. I appreciated the late summer purple flowers, the sunflowers in people's gardens, the fact that I was out running and sweating in the late summer sun, and was NOT shivering in the winter weather yet. I've also loved the quote "I bring my own weather with me" I think that says alot about your attitude. At my friend Reg and Di's house, there is a cross-stitch slogan that says "Attitude is everything" and that's so true. I count this shuffle-run as a success because one, it did make my quads loosen up and feel better and two, I persevered through some minor discomfort and got the run in.

We go to visit the German Shepherd breeder house tomorrow evening. I may have a new family member tomorrow night!!

Groundhog 50K Race Report

I travelled over to Puxsutawney, PA, the "Weather Capital of the World" home of Puxsutawney Phil, who, every February, tells the world whether we will have an early spring or 6 more weeks of winter.
This is a 50K race, hilly, I am told.
The course is an out and back, and there is a big loop, about ten miles, that you run twice.

We have a great spaghetti dinner the night before. Most of the Northern Ohio contigent is there, which is fun, because I see old friends I met in the past year. My friends wave me over to where they are sitting, and after diving into the food, I notice someone is talking to the man next to me about the Barkley. Huh? I look down and see some DVD's on the table of The Runner . I ask him if he is David Horton.
I introduce myself and tell him I running his Mountain Masochist, and knows my first and last name already! It was very cool to talk to David while we ate. Horton also spoke at the dinner. He was very inspirational. I find I agree with him on many ideas, especially about goal setting and having a positive attitude. He spoke about his Pacific Crest Trail Run. Wow. He talked about running out of food and going on, about how hard it was, and how he cried every morning-and went on. He talked about goading people into going farther than they think they can. It was really great to meet him.

Race morning was cold and foggy. It was typical ultra runner start, we all kind of had to get pushed away from the doughnuts and coffee inside out to run. John says "go" and off we went. The first two miles are through town and out on a hard packed country road, and the crowd (115 runners) thins out.

I stop to rety my shoe and find we've gotten really spread out. We come to the first hill, named "Two Beer Hill". Which is in honor of the local mountain bikers. It apparently takes two beers for the courage to ride down this hill!
It's really steep. I run down it, about taking out Ed in the process. What I also love about ultras is you know about 1/2 of everyone's names already. I have been practicing downhill running, and I take this downhill pretty agressively. Ed's doing a switchback, so I try to get by him while he's out of the way.
We run through some strip mined areas, back to the road for a short distance, then onto the loop. The trail is actually old roads, but they are dirt, some covered in moss, some rocks but all very runnable.
I come to the other two big hills on the course "Yellow Bus Hill". This is a good hill! Straight UP!!! And up!!!! I take a quick look once I reach the top-great view!!
The second big hill "Cry Baby Hill" is not too far past this one. (There are banners at each hill, welcoming you to it-what a great touch!!) At the top of Cry Baby, the rain begins on me. Luckily I did bring my WV Trail Runner Ballcap. The rain keeps pouring down, and I am not that warm out, and a bit concerned about possible hypothermia, but I also know the best way to stay warm is to keep running.
The rain makes the road turn into streams, so I no longer bother to try and keep my feet dry. They are completely wet and it doesn't matter to me. Oh well!!
I hit the last aid station on the loop and almost go the wrong way, but the aid people quickly point me in the right direction. This is also where the first ten males lap me also.
It seems like almost in no time I'm back to the start of the loop again, where the first female runner, Connie Gardner laps me. And I'm off for the second loop. This is even better, because I know landmarks now.
It was a really good run. Very runnable course. The rain stopped and I dried out. I was my usually completely happy self out there. People always comment on how happy I look. I caught up to a woman who said "you must have run this before." And I said, no I hadn't, and she said I looked so fresh. I told her I just love running in the woods and trails. I even know I run with a smile on my face. I look around at nature and the woods and the trees. I ran through a really dark section of pines which made it seem I would see hobbits anytime. The rain was causing fog and steam to come up.
I finish the second loop and it's now just 8 miles back to the chicken dinner I had been thinking about for 4 hours!!
I get to the last aid station, which is about 3.5 miles from the finish. I look at my watch and doubt I can break seven hours, which would have been really cool. I keep running, and then finally realize hey my watch is 12 or 15 minutes fast!!! I've got more time than I thought!!
I still had to get back up Two Beer Hill however!! It was much easier running down it! I would hike up a bit, rest for a count of five, hike more, rest, and that's how I got up it!!
I keep running, and visualizing my sub 7 finish, and have to tell myself you better run faster and keep your mind on the race or you won't hit that!!!!
I get back to town, the most dangerous part of the race, with a 1/4 mile into town and now traffic about. A minivan pulls up to the end of the driveway and the woman is looking left, and I am thinking "You better look right lady I am coming!". I also will the cars to let me dart in front of them because there is NO WAY I am stopping to let me through.
I turn the corner and see the clock: 644!!!!! I run across at 6.45.01!!! So respectable for me!! I am so pleased!!
I love the ultra community. Ron Ross, one of our local elite, is standing there, and I only know him casually, I have talked to his wife way more. He hugs and congratulates me. I believe Ron finished fourth this year. You don't see the fourth finisher of any marathoner hanging out to congratulate back of the packers!!!!
More festivities, the chicken dinner I can't even finish it was so huge follow. It was good to have time to sit down and talk more and rehash some of the race. But after a shower, I got on the road fairly quickly since I had a 4 hour drive ahead.
This was a very nice race. Great trail markings, great dinner the night before, dinner afterward, nice swag-we got a Montrail bottle, a Punxsutawney Phil Beanie Baby, a groundhog pin, a groundhog medallion, and a Bottle of Groundhog Ale! John Goss and his volunteers really put on a great race, and I would recommend this 50K to anyone!!

Isn't it Cool?

Or maybe I should say, isn't it great to be in such good physical shape, and to be lucky enough (knock on wood) to not be injured so you can casually say to other ultrarunners "hey, I'm going to run 24 miles Oct 7, and then 26 miles Oct 14 in case you want to join me.." I'm so happy to be back to this level of condition. That was the worst part of the injury last winter, was losing the ability to just run out the door, and run 10 or 20 or 30 miles...just whatever I felt like doing that day.

Visiting

I stopped by my local ultra friends house after work today. This is Diana and Regis Shivers. Regis is our local area legend. Reg has run the Mohican 100 Trail Run twelve times. He ran the Applachian Trail. He actually stopped running the AT, returned to Ohio, ran the Mohican and then went back to the AT.
Reg had cancer of his larynx; he had radiation treatment and surgery and was declared clear of cancer. But something wasn't quite right, and right after Mohican Trail Race 2006 they were told his cancer had returned.
Reg is getting chemotherapy treatments now, and only has one more session. I stopped in to see them and see if Regis Jr was going to go over to Punxy. Reg was a bit under the weather (I would be too if I had chemotherapy the day before) but he's still upright and moving around. He shaved his head because his hair had started to fall out. The Shivers told me to tell everyone over at Punxy hello, and Di gave me permission to give out her email.
So if you are a friend of Di and Regis, and would like to email them, please contact me. Di loves getting email and it brightens their day to hear from their ultrarunning friends. My email is kimba90 and the rest is the yahoo.com address; I can then give you Di's email addy.

After I visited the Shivers I went on to the gym and did a short elliptical workout, and then stretched really well. My plans changed again so I will be home on Thursday evening, so I can pack then!

Stretching

Wow I was tired today. I did the ice bath after I got home last night, with my hamstring and piriformis butt hurting, and had no aches from that. So I did my core workout at the gym, and then stretched-and that did feel good to do!
My Labor Day run was actually pretty funny. My newly hired technician asked me how my run went. I just looked at him. He then related how he almost hit me on SR 541 driving as I was running. I told him "you should not try and hit the boss until your 90 days are up" and that was the running joke for the rest of the day at work.

Taper? What taper?

Ok, I should have ran 10 miles Sunday. But I was lazy, and slept in and didn't do it.
So I thought I would run 10 miles after work today. I was going out to the Woodbury area again. I had my awful little ambigous map off the internet, and I thought I had mapped out a 10 mile or so course, using Sue and Paul's Pedometer thingy.
Off I go, not that I wanted to, I think I was a bit dehydrated. One township road I turned on was loose gravel and not too comfortable to run on at all, but I thought of a phrase from IronWil I was at a "Prozac patch" and just kept going.
Well my map wasn't too good. I never found the proper township to turn right onto, so I took the next road and thought I knew where I was going. Until it dumped me back on the main road, at 9 miles, with about 4 more to go back to my vehicle. Grr. I had one gel with me, and a remaining granola bar. I finally ate the bar, which did pick up my energy level. I had drank all my water by mile 9, thinking I was almost done with the road, but luckily the weather was cool so that didn't affect me too much.
Since the burning hot summer is over, by the time I got back to my vehicle I was getting chilled from the sweat and cooling temperatures, so I had to strip off all the wet clothes and put the dress I wore to work back on!! Note to self: time to start bringing spare Tshirt and shorts for post workout.
So modified workout week:
Tuesday core and stretch
Wednesday core; 20 or so minutes on the elliptical and stretch
Thursday: driving to a friend's house on way to PA, so no running
Friday: Arrive Punxy
Saturday: Race Day!

Where did the summer go?

Where did the summer go?
I was up in the Akron area on Saturday. I wanted to run my section of the relay for the Akron Marathon September 30. I have the uphill 5K portion. I’ve ran it several times, before my Akron Marathon debut, in 2004, but I wanted to go over the course again-I’m kind of anal about that.
It was raining and 60 degrees. Wow, where did my heat and humidity go? Luckily I was wearing a singlet and a technical long sleeve shirt over that. I took the shirt off to run uphill, and then recovered for the downhill.
It’s not a big 5K section. The first mile actually takes a dip, and then it’s a gradual climb uphill. I just need to figure out whether to take the first mile slower, then start pushing about mile 1.5.
I did run it in about 31 minutes, and I hope to do it on race day in 30 minutes or less. I will have to get properly warmed up, run about 1 mile before my start. My legs were a bit tight since I pretty much hopped out of my vehicle and started the run, since I didn’t want to get cold.

I bought and read Pam Reed’s book “The Extra Mile”. I had already heard reviews of it, but decided to read it for myself. I really wouldn’t recommend buying it. Maybe if you can get it at the library. She’s very critical of herself. It really is more of an autobiography than much about her running, and I guess that’s what I was looking for, more of what makes her run.
I also bought the latest Trail Runner magazine, and it seemed to have improved over the last time I bought it. The last issue I read made it seem like “Runners World.” RW is very good for totally newby runners. But if you have been running for more than one year, I don’t see the point. I bought the July issue and it’s just a rehash of articles that I have read in there before.
I had already heard the hoopla about Dean Karnazes gracing the September issue of Runners World, and the brouhaha on the Ultra List and even Coolrunning.com has begun. I didn’t even read the article about DK. I’m just kind of really bored with the whole DK hate-love fest. I’ve been skipping a lot posts on the ultra list because of it. DK has made many more people aware of ultra running. That’s both good and bad, depending on your philosophy of the sport. I’m a total newb to the whole ultra running thing too. It’s good to have new folks running. It keeps the sport going. Will ultras races get too crowded? Maybe? Many races are already capped off. The North Fork Mountain Run in WV had 70 people this year, probably 25 more than the year before. The Mohican 100 had about 30 more runners than the year before. The JFK has about a 1000 runners!
There are more ultras out there to pick from. The local runners in northern Ohio are constructing a new 100 mile race for next August,The Burning River 100I think it’s great to have all these races to choose from.