Waldo 100k and Time Flies When...

The last few months have been a whirlwind.  I've ran a race, worked a bunch, signed up and have been training for another race, and directed a race.  I'm not even sure where to start on this post which means I need to do a better job of keeping it up to date.

Let's start with Waldo 100K.  I was really trying to key in on this race but those two ankle sprains from July really pushed my specific training back and I ended up concentrating on just getting healthy.  I avoided a lot of the technical stuff and big down hills which were the major irritant to my ankle. Waldo does not have much from a technical trail standpoint but does have a few long descents that I'd of liked to attack a little harder but played it safe.  Overall everything held up and I landed right around where I thought I would which was between 12 and 13 hours.  My time was 12:15:44 good enough for 19th overall.  I know that I left some time out there by not having that "killer instinct." I didn't push too hard when things were uncomfortable and they were given this thing took place above 5k. However, given that I had been dealing with some injuries coming in I wanted to get though this thing in one piece and just enjoy the day on a killer, well organized course.  Mission accomplished.

So..... what happens when a race does not go as well as you would have liked?  You sign up for another one of course!  I took a hard 2 weeks off after Waldo to recover and let that big effort soak in knowing full and well that I was going to get in one more big effort before the year closed out.  I went back and forth on a few things.  Attempted to find a 100 that would get me a lotto ticket for Hard Rock but ultimately determined that nothing out there fit into my schedule.  My RD duties at the Mark Twain Endurance Runs take a lot of time and effort, not to mention toll on my body from a rest standpoint.  I end up taking off almost a week of work to put the event on so to even attempt to travel somewhere else in the month of September to get in that Hardrock qualifier was just not happening.  I settled on Chimera 100.  It looks to be a tough one with lots of climb and technical trail.  I am a fan of these because it means I get walking breaks on the climbs! (We'll see if I am still a fan 70 miles in) This will probably be one of my last big efforts for a while with the new baby on the way.  I figured I might as well go big.   

It is really simple from here.  Run and climb a bunch.  So far I am on track.