How did I get here?

At this point, I am strictly writing this for myself, but even I ask myself how did I get to the point that I want to run an ultra marathon? Not just that, but actually want to do well enough to want to do another and eventually qualify for the big daddy in these parts, The Western States Endurance Run. Being a realist, I understand that I may never get the point that Western States becomes a realistic goal, but a couple of years ago, a marathon might as well have been 100 miles. I've got 3 marathons under my belt now and it seems as good a time as any to step up in distance. Probably the biggest inspiration has been the beautiful, challenging trails within driving distance. Outside of the sheer joy of running, there were a few things that really got me to thinking that it would be pretty cool to do something like an ultra. The Ultramarathon Man book by Dean Karnazes opened up the culture of the ultras to me and it just went on from there. I attended a talk Tim "The King of the Western States" Tweitmeyer gave at a local Fleet Feet and it blew me away how much of an average guy he was (and I mean that as the highest compliment possible). Talk about incredibly down to earth and matter of fact about his awe inspiring accomplishments. After listening to Tim, I went to the Forresthill School aid station during the 2007 WS 100, then down to the finish line in Auburn to see Hal Koerner come across in first place. Then, shortly after Hal, Eric Skaden from my neighborhood came in second place. I don't know Eric at all, but I have seen him a couple of times on the trails and the amount of inspiration I have here locally never ceases to amaze me. Currently I am acquiring as much information as I can on ultras, from training plans to equipment, trails to races, anything I can find that might assist me in making a successful transition from marathoner to ultra man. Wish me luck! If I find anything I think would be beneficial to anybody, I will be sure to post.

And so it begins

Day 1 of my training for the Way Too Cool 50k which will be run on March 8th. This run is well known in the ultra community for rapidly filling up on the first day registration goes online (as in 7 minutes last year). Since this was my first experience trying to get in to a run like this, I'll share my experience.

Since this run fills up so quickly and has an incredibly high finish rate, it seemed like the perfect choice for my first ultra. Registration did not open until 8:00 a.m. yesterday morning, so I was logged into Active.com at about 7:45. At 7:50, I went to the registration page just to make sure I was ready and much to my surprise, it let me in and I registered. My confirmation was time-stamped at 7:53, so I sincerely hope all the people who logged in at 8:00 were able to get in.

To most ultra runners, a 50k, particularly this one would not be too intimidating, but as a runner who just completed his third marathon, I have a great deal of respect for the distance. The run starts at the Cool Fire Station where I have done some runs and had my lunch handed to me by the Olmstead Loop. Everything I read online about the Olmstead Loop is that it was a nice, well groomed, moderately challenging 9 mile loop. It is a great trail, but there are a couple of hills, particularly the one leading out of the creek canyon that left me questioning the term moderate when talking about this thing. I guess it is all about perspective and since I do the majority of runs on the American River Bike Trail, my biggest hills are the bridges and overpasses.

As this is my first blog entry, I'll keep it short while I figure out how all this works. My hope is to chronicle my transition from back of the pack (4:30) marathoner to back of the pack ultra marathoner.