robertnelson.com/running

I ran, or I suppose I should say that I attempted to run the John Holmes 50k trail run on Saturday and once again I went home with a DNF. This was my third time at this event and this DNF is even more disappointing that last years.

You see, I first ran this event 3 years ago and finished feeling very strong at just under 6 hours, then last year I DNF’d at around mile 28, and this past Saturday I DNF’d at around mile 24.

I wish I could say I knew what was wrong. I was eating and drinking on both failed attempts but I still got to a point when I just felt overly dehydrated and needed out. The course is tough, I am not a trail runner by nature and I think part of the fail is that my mind gets going, there is quite a bit of alone time on this course, and when you are not feeling great that tends to eat away at you.

If nothing else this has given me some determination moving forward. Some may have gotten scared away from my next challenge after this failed day, but I am feeling more determined to make it happen by this failure.

Some say that is a character trait, I always believe that I can make something happen, despite past failures. I am usually confident and pretty much always willing to make an attempt. Most people think I am crazy for attempting a 100 mile run, and now even more will think that after I failed to run 31. I guess you can say I am stubborn.

Time to sit down and finalize my training plan, take a few days off running and then begin seeing what will work while building up some serious endurance.

Of course more will come on my training for the Keys 100 in the coming months.

So…over time this site went downhill and was almost fully retired, but as an endurance athlete (and blogger) I knew that I would eventually come back here with a new way to test myself. I was getting kind of bored writing here and I figured that when I was bored anyone reading would also be bored. It had become a log of my daily runs and I was not training for anything special, which meant that writing here just became a chore.

However, I now have a new challenge in mind and I always find it better to share the goal with others as it then becomes a little more real, and in turn makes it harder to back out of due to fear.

Yes, I said fear, because while I am still a good distance away from my big test, I am already scared. It is funny because I am both scared of attempting and scared of failing.

I am running the John Holmes 50K trail run this Saturday (October 11) which is close to my home in Brooksville Florida, and although I am a little nervous after a DNF last year, this is just a stepping stone to see how far along I am in my training. This Saturdays run is not my real challenge. Overall I feel pretty good, but I have also been doing more cross training as my summer months were focused on triathlon and not distance running, so it should be interesting to see just how well that translates into distance trail running. I feel strong, but a lot can happen on the day of the run.

Anyway, back to my real test, I have decided to do a true ultra marathon and have jumped up the distance. Instead of taking the halfway mark at 50 miles I decided to run the Keys100 ultra marathon. Yup, 100 miles of straight running. The race goes from Key Largo and finishes all the way down in Key West. At least I will have a nice beach to pass out and rest on when I finish.

I have decided to follow (a slightly modified version) of Hal Higdon’s ultra marathon training program. The plan is for 24 weeks which means I will officially begin training on November 24 as the race begins on May 11. Until that first day of official training I am going to continue on my current plan, which gives me 3 days of running and 3 days of biking with a long run on Saturday and a long bike on Sunday.

With this new event and challenge I figured it would be a good time to revive this blog. I can share my training progress, which will help me track my progress and just maybe inspire someone else to do something crazy. I am not an expert runner by any means, I still make plenty of mistakes when I run, but the years and numerous events that I have completed have all served as a good learning experience.

My only question is what am I going to have to step up to after I complete the 100 miles.