100 miles

Tomorrow will be one year since I participated in my first and only 100 mile event.  It was the experience of a lifetime, and I'd actually signed up to do it again this year.  A month ago, I realized that my body not only wasn't prepared, but that I'm not sure my body will ever be prepared to put myself through that experience again.  The main reason is what walking and running 100 miles takes out of your body.  While I managed to do two Ironman's this past year, despite starting the year off with a 100 miler, I'm not sure that it did me any favors in relation to my overall fitness and how my two Ironman's ultimately affected me.

With all of that said, I will always respect 100 miles.  And, I'll always remember the pride I felt in completing 100 miles.  I'll never forget where my brain was with about 6 miles to go.  The thought of going easy,  which would have been doing a mile in about 20 minutes, just seemed interminable.  So, I put my head down and buried myself with an effort that I can only compare to what it feels like to run as hard as I can during the last two miles of an Ironman.  That's what I did for the last six miles of the event a year ago, and I was only burying myself at a 17 minute per mile pace.  So, I saved about 20 minutes, which in the scheme of a 40 hour effort doesn't seem like much.  However, it felt like forever.

The other thing about those last 6 miles was how quickly it went by, because I was burying myself.  The brain is a remarkable organ, and how we perceive certain stimuli depending on our surroundings is amazing.  Tomorrow, many of the friends that I made a year ago, including my good friend Robert, will be making the 100 mile journey.  I will follow along vicariously over the next two days.  To some degree, I'll be a little jealous, wishing that I could be there with them.  On the other hand, I know that it's healthier not to be putting myself through it.  100 miles.  Wow.