A few days ago, I blurted it out, in the presence of a reliable health professional: I'm planning to do a 60km mountain run in December 2010. I made this rash promise in the presence of my osteopath, ironically treating me for a running injury at the time. She was kind enough to make encouraging noises while I started contemplating setting up a direct credit to her bank account.
I'm a very average person and a very average runner, a plodder happier over long distances. An 'adult onset' runner, I started about five years ago, after spending most of my life pointing at runners and laughing about how miserable they all looked. Now I'm one of them. I'm still not sure why, but three times a week I hit the pavement, trail or treadmill, and do some cross training sessions when I'm being good. I do more than slightly less than that when I'm not being good.
So why the 60km challenge? Well, 40 is looming, my knees still work, and with any luck, 2010 is a year in which I will have time to train.
Can I do it? Well, I think I'll be OK for the distance if I pull finger and actually train, but how well can I do it? In ascending order of preference for condition at the finish line:
1. Getting there
2. Getting there upright
3. Not puking on the line (before the line is OK)
4. Not grimacing
5. Smiling
6. Running and smiling
I'm sure that the training runs will add variations on the above. Will keep you posted.
My other aims are to not get (too badly) injured during the year, and to maintain some sort of consistency with my running in balance with family, work, friends and keeping my house at least habitable.
Tomorrow is Monday, and I'm marking it the first formal day of my year-long build up to my event in December 2010. But before then, a big slice of chocolate cake. Plenty of time to work that off later on.
Happy trails folks!
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