Here we go.. the week of the McNaughton Park 100 mile run is here again. It’s hard to believe it’s been a year already. I’m really looking for to this. I have trained hard and put in more miles then I ever have before leading up to an event. I am as ready as I can be. Now I just have to execute and adjust when the unexpected happens.
Last year sucked, I did not train properly and it came back to haunt me, bottom line. However, last year made me stronger. Not the race itself, but knowing the consequences of dropping out. It has been on my mind a lot. I do not know if I have ran one time where the thought of that DNF did not creep in my head for at least a second or two. I will use that to remind me to keep going. I heard a saying in the movie, The Runner, where David Horton says ““Sometimes I just wanted to say “I give up, I quit” but you can’t, you gotta live, you wouldn’t die, you’d suffer more.”” This is right on, you’d suffer the consequences for another year until you could prove yourself again, except in this race, there is no guarantee of next year. The RD has moved away from the area and no one knows for sure if it will be picked up by someone else or not. I have to make this one worth while.
I am very blessed to have a family that supports me in my adventures. My wife and 18 month old daughter will be up in the middle of the day to cheer me on, then hit the hotel for the night and come back out in the morning to see me finish. My father-in-law (Ron) and my cousin (Dylan) will be my support crew through the night. Ron will be at the start/finish to help me out, refill bottles and keep me going. Dylan is going to help pace me though a few loops. It’s up to him how many, but even if its only two, it will be greatly appreciated.
I’m going to post some updates to Twitter throughout the day. I won’t be actively posting but I have some draft messages set up that I can just hit send on to update. Feel free to “follow” along. www.twitter.com/travisliles
As always, I am very excited to see some of my ultra friends and make some new ones. Hope to see you there!!!
Here is a quick little video of the McNaughton Park 150 mile run by David Goggins in 2008. It’s the same course I will run but I will do 10 laps instead of 15.
