
I strongly believe my next 50k will be run on Bear Mountain and from what I have heard it is one of the toughest 50k courses in the New England/Mid Atlantic region. I know three people that have run the course and all three have said that it is difficult but can be done. I have also been warned that it is more of a mental race than a physical race and this scares the crap out of me!!
To be honest I'm happy that I will not be running all 31 miles, with the terrain being so rocky and steep I will need to walk and or climb during the race. I believe that helps me because I can regain my composure rather than trying to run and meet a certain time at each mile. I have decided that I will not have a watch with me for the race, I want to enjoy the run, I want to enjoy the scenery while running. I don't want to be looking at my watch every five minutes and doing math in my head to know when I should finish. For me this race is about being alive and proving to myself that I can do it, it is not about time.
With that said training is going to be interesting, I will be logging tons of miles but I need to do more mental training than anything because this race is going to hurt a lot!!! As I said I know three people that have run the race and have a number of ultra running books, I will be ready for the race it will just be a matter of not giving in to the pain.
Running a 50k in June of 2017 has helped me prepare for this race next year. I was not ready for the 50k in June of 2017, I thought I was prepared but honestly I was not. The mental side of the race was my main concern and I over looked the physical part. I thought I could train like I was running a marathon but truthfully a 50k is a whole different animal. I wasn't ready for the rock climbing and as always I began a little to quickly and paid for it much later in the race. I have over 200 days until race day, I will learn a lot and be ready for race day.