I can never quite seem to find the time to look back and reflect upon the things that I have done, only ever find time to start concentrating on the next big thing. As someone once told me, I seem to be without rear view mirrors in my life.
I know that when I am old and grey I will waste away many a day, with a good mug of tea, lounging in a hammock, and reflecting back upon the things that I never fully took the time to appreciate while I was doing them...but until then, it's on to the next one...
Stormy, 80km ultra marathon, August 11Th. The biggest distance I have covered to date in a trail race is 67km, but that was way back in 2004! Since then many things in my life have changed, as this addiction continues to grow, and although 80km is a hell of a long ways to run, I am only doing it to finish a qualifier event to enter my name into the draw for Western States, a 160km non-stop running event that I would love to do in 08...because if you can finish 'Western' in under 24hr's, you are awarded a cowboy belt buckle!!
Anyways, I diverge, it's sunny out for the first time in a week (as you can see by some of those flooding photos) and I was just quickly going to toss up a few pics of my last few weeks of training, which as you can imagine have been running dominated.
I put in almost 10hr of running two weeks ago and 12hr last week, all in all feeling amazing heading into this event. I managed a 5hr run in Whistler on Sunday covering over 45km and numerous great trails such as 'Comfortably Numb' and the Lost Lake trail system. I was amazed at how my body held up throughout and pleasantly surprised to find that I wasn't too bad the following day. A few more big runs and then a taper until the event...oh yeah, and I fly to Australia the week after Stormy for XPD, our biggest race of the season. The race directors just decided on a whim to add an extra hundred km to that race, so it now sits as an 800km expedition adventure race...we have to finish it as quickly as possible...to enjoy as much beach and beer time as we can!!
Anyways, I'm out the door, too nice to be sitting on here...
GR