I’m pretty excited for my race this weekend. OK fine, I’m excited for all my races. I get amped up a little more for my hundred milers. Vermont is not your average hundred miler though (if there is such a thing). And that’s got my level of anxiety anticipation at another level entirely. I have high hopes for this race. Not so much from a performance standpoint as the race atmosphere. There’s a couple different things that cause Vermont to stand out:
- Old school race – started way back in 1989 (i.e. when I was still in high school).
- Concurrent horse race.
- Dirt roads make up two-thirds of the course.
A big draw of ultras for me is the variety. Different distances. Different layouts. Vastly different formats. So the more unique a race, the more I’m drawn to it like a loadstone. Running with horses? Sign me up! I should point out that we’re not racing horses. The have their own event that just happens to be held at the same time on the same course.
There’s a couple race safety rules that I’m not a huge fan of due to the concurrent horse race – no trekking poles or headphones. Obviously, neither of these are deal breakers for me considering I signed up for the race. I would normally use poles for races with over 150′ elevation gain per mile, which this race falls into that category (17,000′). My hope is that all the road sections make them less necessary. I have gotten into the habit of using music from mile 50 onwards. I love just cruising overnight in a bubble of light from headlamp jamming out to my Best Of list. Just me, my tunes, and the lonely miles late in a race. Sigh.
What has me most excited are the course’s similarities to Old Dominion, which is my second favorite race of all time. Most ultras anymore are predominately on trails, however this race has more miles on country roads than actual trails. I enjoy running on both roads and trails so this will be a good mix for me. Again, give me some variety instead of the same old, same old. I’m trying not to get overly hyped up. I really am. At this point, it’s going to be rather difficult for the race to live up to my expectations.
I’ve had a very solid block of training leading up to this race.
My mileage is towards the upper end of where I’ve been the past couple years. This doesn’t give a complete picture though as I’ve upped the intensity with lots of hill repeats over the past 5 weeks. Overall, I would say my total workload is probably on par with what I did heading into C&O in 2021 (current 100 mile PR). What’s also not captured is the heat and humidity wave we’ve been going through the past couple weeks. Talk about great prep for a summer hundred. I’ll definitely not be surprised by the afternoon heat up in Vermont. Not that it won’t slow me down, but hopefully I’ll be better prepared to deal with it.
Only a couple days left to finish packing. I hope I don’t forget anything. . .