Countdown to Castlewood

Why stop at 1 adventure race? In four days, I'll be racing with a guy from STL in the Castlewood 8-Hr. It's not MO, actually, I haven't even met my teammate. His name is Jake. And he's from STL. You now know just as much about my teammate as I do. Oh well, should be fun anyway!

The only problem I foresee is this damn cold. I was hoping it would pass quickly, but I'm feeling worse today than I did yesterday. It could be a very long day on Saturday. And with Rocky Raccoon just around the corner, I need to run 10 miles on Sunday after we get back to KC. Oh the endurance life!

Actually, I have a feeling that Rocky will be my last ultra for quite a while. After doing an adventure race, I don't see myself doing more ultras anytime soon. I'd rather train for an 18- 24- or 48- hour AR than train for another 50. There is no course, there is no boredom. I never once asked myself "Why in God's name am I doing this?" which goes through my head regularly during an ultra. Adventure racing requires you to pay attention and requires a much greater skill-set than ultras. And, a repeated theme here is this: I like to go fast. And going fast in an ultra can be devastating. My goal for Rocky is to just have a good race so when I'm done I don't feel like I have any unfinished business. I'm sure I'll come back to ultras eventually. Just not anytime in the near future.