The things you do for your blog. Realising I could be ostracising a whole group of runners who cannot relate to most of my posts, (Because of my constant highlighting of race pace not because most of the time I’m talking….<inset comment > … be nice.) I’m talking about ultra runners, I have entered a 100k ultra marathon a week before my 50th birthday. ( http://australiadayultra.com) These runners would consider what I post normally alien to themselves and their fellow ‘long is the only way to run’ brothers (or sisters) in arms.  Not for them the ‘gush of the pain train’ as you explode into a 5k sprint or the mental torture of the 7th and 8th kilometre in a 10k race. Ultra runners are all about the slow drip-drip mental torture of going long and consider marathon runners and any distance runner less than 50k as show ponies. It gets even worse when you add trails and mountains into the equation. That’s when they all turn a bit weird in my view but each to their own. As I love my concrete big city marathons they love getting out there and reconnecting with nature. (I much prefer to connect with nature via a nice cafe selling decent coffee and fruit, albeit cocooned in a muffin?)

I’m not a complete novice to ultra marathons having ran 16 in my time ranging from 46k (remember anything longer than a marathon, albeit it even 4k, is considered an ultra.) up to 89k but I have never broken triple figures.  My ultra running career includes seven 6-inch finishes, ( http://www.6inchtrailmarathon.com ) (ranging from 46k to 50k, I have got lost twice on this run.) four WAMC 40miler finishes (64k), two 50k’s (including the ADU last year http://australiadayultra.com ) and three Comrade finishes, albeit 6 years ago now. ( http://www.comrades.com )

In Perth the marathon season begins with the Bunbury marathon in April ( http://bunburyrunnersclub.org/3-waters-marathon/ ) and then moves onto the Perth marathon in June, Geraldton next before the City to Surf marathon in August and finishes with the Rottnest marathon in October. Between October and May it’s ultra time with the 6 inch ultra in December, last Sunday before Christmas,  then the Australia Day Ultra in January, as well as the new WA Ultra Series which adds in another three ultras. We really are spoilt for choice in Western Australia at the moment.  This is why I realised there must be ultra runners out there who I need to connect with.

I want to feel that mental pain that they gush about when describing their ultra exploits. To this end I have decided to make it more interesting by not changing my training specifically for the 100k race in January. I enjoy my long Sunday runs with the ‘BK posse‘ but 30k is enough even for me. My training for the ADU100K will consist of a good weekly distance but no runs further than 30k, bar the 6 inch ultra on December 18th. No point wasting all that ‘ultra-high’ in training, I want to feel the full monty on race day, probably at 80k when my legs give way?  There’s more of course, it’s not about just finishing the 100k I need to give myself a target time, it is after all a race no matter what distance. 8 hours sounded reasonable until my friend Rob showed me the Australian record for the 50-55 age group (the one I miss by a week) is just shy of 8 hours. No point aiming low then so 8 hours it is. I’ll certainly get to 50k at 8 hour pace, the rest so they say is in the lap of the gods.

Last tear I had entered the ADU100K but dropped down to the 50k after a particularly bad run the week before in the heat when I targeted a long 34k and pulled the pin at halfway. This, in hindsight, was the right thing to do as on the day I ran well enough for a podium finish but would have been in no state to continue for another 50k. I feel this year I am better prepared after a stellar 2016 racing season and hope basic good old fashioned running fitness will get me to the finish line rather than long slow runs to build endurance. Even typing that I can see flaws in my master plan but what would life be without the odd gamble? On the bright side I get to run a long time (and I love running) and also I get to eat a lot of high calorie , high fat ‘tukka’ as well as lots of carbohydrates. How bad can this be? I may even pout on some weight like my mate Jon last year. (who is also competing again more for the food than the glory I feel.)

So this is the first post in the ultra marathon category and I will use this to document my path to the 6 inch ultra late December and then the Australia Day Ultra late January. It will be an interesting journey and a challenging one but I wouldn’t have it any other way.