Confessions of an ultra runner.

This post is almost 3 weeks overdue and will talk about my state of mind as it was 3 weeks ago. But let me start with a greeting.

Hi, I'm Adam and I'm a running addict.

Let me explain.

It was the weekend. Barely one week after my 100-mile attempt at Chimera. I was a wreck. My busted knee was hurting. I lost two toenails. And my feet were a total mess. So much so that I could only walk on the edges of my feet (I kid you not), which looked kinda funny. Or not. You see, the amazingly kind lady that taped my blistered feet during the race warned me that this tape is no joke and that it may help me finish the race but removing it afterwards is not going to be pretty. It wasn't. Together with the tape I lost substantial amount of skin from the soles of my feet. Resulting in two gaping holes. I was even contemplating taking a photo and putting it on the blog but then realized that it was too gross even for my wrecked standards.

And yet what was I doing on that weekend? No, not running, I really wasn't in shape for that. But close: I was looking for another race. Another hundred miler to be precise.

And I even found one. It's Badger Mountain. In many respects it's a perfect race. It's 100 miles, so I'll have a chance to take a revenge at this distance. It's a mere 2h flight + 3h drive away. It has a real nice course (there is no shortage of long races consisting of multiple short loops, but for me that's not a proper ultra). It also has respectable 19,000 feet of elevation gain, close to Chimera, so no risk of accusations of taking it easy this time ;). Finally, it's at the end of March, when my US adventure will most likely be coming to an end (more on that in another post) and what better way to end it than with such a race? What indeed.

All in all, a perfect race. Will I run it? Well, only if I'll be able to do a proper training and put in enough miles. No running without adequate training this time. But I do hope I'll be able to do that. And I'm really hoping to give it another shot in March.

Which, given that I'm entertaining such thoughts mere one week after the crazy Chimera race, begs the question: am I a running addict? And if so, should I be worried? If anyone's reading this: tell me what you think! :)

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