Post The Bear

Originally written on November 5th , 2014

It may take a lot of mental fortitude and strength to get through an ultra, especially a 100 mile race, but for some reason that mental strength seems to disappear when the question of signing up for another challenging race presents itself. This again happened to me just recently. Failure at the Bear was still sitting heavily on my mind and I was trying to find another race to do, maybe not till next spring, but the sooner the better. As it was Will Jorgensen, who I met a few years ago at O24 and ran across a few times at races over the next year or so, is the race director for the Pistol Ultra in Alcoa, Tennessee sent me a message asking if I’d be interested in coming down for his race in January. Iwas interested and had actually talked to Joan about it in the weeks before, but we had decided that we should stay at home over Christmas and New Year’s this year, especially with Jack around now. But after mentioning the message from Will Joan said if wanted to go myself then that wouldn’t be a problem. Within hours I was signed up, flights booked, hotel rooms booked and car rental arranged! What a pushover I am.
So I have gone from running for maintenance only and not worrying about mileage, to ramping up the mileage and putting in a lot more running. Mix this in with going to the gym 3 times a week and a bit of yoga once a week at least and I’ve become very busy again.
The Pistol Ultra is a 100 mile event (also with 100k and 50k events) that takes place in the town of Alcoa in eastern Tennessee, near Knoxville. The course is an eleven mile looped course on paved bike path. The course is basically flat and probably good for PB’s, with no hills/mountains, routes, rocks, mud etc. to worry about. Having said that, it is still a 100 miles and anything can happen. Weather could also be a factor, and in that part of the world, we could be talking about cold(ish) and snowy to warm and sunny. So who knows what that will bring.
As it is I am looking forward to this race and sure it will be a good time regardless. Training has been stepped up and I have now got just over 8 weeks to get ready.