As another 100 miler rounds the corner, preparation for this time around has been much less consistent versus the past couple of years. The first time around, my efforts in 2012 for the Tahoe Rim Trail 100 was not nearly enough for preparing to “pop my 100 mile cherry.” Then in 2013, I went into Wasatch 100, probably one of the toughest 100 milers in the country, slightly overtrained, and definitely felt it during the race last year. This time around, I am hoping a balance of good efforts in smaller races, somewhat consistent weekly training, forgiving the huge dose of “real life” realities that have taken over the past six months, don’t leave me too rusty for the Big Horn 100 in just 40 days time.

It was a good time had at the McDonald Forest 50K in Corvallis, OR this past weekend, nothing too interesting about the course, although a more scenic version of Forest Park, and a second half of the race cooked in MUD, which slowed the pace down for quite awhile. The first 15 miles were quite runnable, we had some big climbs, but nothing too difficult, and plenty of logging roads to flatten out the uphill. The most interesting part was probably the 20 foot wall of mud around mile 16, that had us going up a 70 degree incline. The last 1/3 of the race had us chasing each other through the mud, and finished off the race in a respectable 5:30; pressing the gas in the first half and easing into a 100 mile pace the last 1/3 of the race.

It’s difficult to think there is just that much time left, no big prep race for me this year, all that I have left is a couple of Western States training runs in in Squaw in two weeks, then it’s time to Big Horn. More to come, stay tuned.