I’ll be heading down to North Carolina this weekend for the Uwharrie 100 Miler, which is a race that’s been on my radar for a number of years. It’s set up as five 20.5 mile figure eight loops with about 18,000 feet total elevation gain/loss. It’s advertised as “classic NC technical” so I’ll be interested to see how it compares to what we have up here in Rocksylvania. I’m sure it’ll be a good challenge regardless.
I need to be very careful with how I approach this race. I’m not necessarily looking past it as no hundred mile finish can be assumed, however The Void next month is most assuredly occupying a significant portion of my headspace right now. Additionally, you can make the argument that the course is easier than each of my last two races (Eastern States, Virgil Crest) so if I can finish those, then I can finish this one. Both those races also went relatively smoothly so recency bias could lead me to discount the issues I might encounter.
Confidence is a good thing. Overconfidence is a very bad thing. Unfortunately, you can only tell the difference in hindsight.
Weather is typically the biggest X-Factor in races. The current forecast is for no precipitation, however temperatures are supposed to drop into the 30s overnight. We focus a lot of attention on heat acclimation (and rightfully so), however cold acclimation is also a thing. This is especially true overnight in hundreds when temperatures typically feel 10 degrees colder than they actually are as your body loses its ability to self regulate. Suffice to say I’m not currently acclimated to 30 degree temps let alone what will feel like 20s during the race. My strategy to combat this will be to dress warmer than I think I need to dress, carry handwarmers in my pack in case of emergency, and then bust out my hot bottle trick if all else fails.
A lot of times, whether you finish an ultra or not comes down to motivation. Do you really want it bad enough when you enter the suck? As I continue to rack up hundred mile finish after hundred mile finish, the importance of any given race diminishes. Been there, done that after all. My extra motivation to finish Uwharrie will come from two sources. First, this is a new race for me. If I DNF it, I’ll want to come back to finish it and considering it’s a long @ss drive this will help me push myself more than if I would if I already had a couple finishes here. The larger motivation is that I’ve managed to finish 38 straight races of 100 miles or longer. I doubt it’s no where near any kind of record, but I’m proud of my consistency to finish races over the past 8 years. This is not a streak that I want to end any time soon so will dig especially deep to get myself a buckle if that’s what’s needed this weekend.
Time to hit the road so I can hit some new trails!