Are These Times Contagious.

Collective Soul's "I've never been this bored before, I've got a long way to run" have to be the most hilarious lyrics to first hit my ears at the start of any run.  With my tunes on shuffle at the start of the News Years Revolution Run, I chuckled out loud from the coincidence.  The gist of the event is to run around a 440 meter indoor track for 5 hours with 400 other people... and rack up as many laps as you can. Three days ago I had never heard of such an event around here.  Also having recently been mega-inspired by Zach Bitter's amazing 100 mile record on a track, I convinced my wife Izzy to join me for the torturous fun. 

Going into the run my entire mindset centered on how good of a training it would be, especially because my legs were trashed from running everyday during the week.  Including 4 summit climbs (9850 ft of vert) and some quad screaming powder turns the night before. 

The mundane nature of running in a circle for 5 hrs actually really intrigued me.  I like numbers, splits, and pace charts.  That said, the only goal in my head was to run the whole 5 hours.  At times swerving through traffic on the track annoyed me a little, but not too much. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting other people, chatting with my wife, and watching other folks running their guts out. At the 1 hour mark my total laps hit 25 then I walked a little and ate fruit and energy gels.  I could tell lots of other folks were running faster than me but I was not paying that much attention, yet.  I did not really count laps till the end nor did I have a watch on.  If you asked a volunteer your laps they would write it on a white board the next time you came around.  The board also listed the top 3 runners, my race bib number never appeared.  Running in a loop makes it real easy to hydrate and eat. I grabbed a water bottle for a lap here and there or grabbed things from my duffle on the bleachers once or twice. 

 Mid way through, my legs started dragging, but after eating and walking a bit I sped back up. At the two hour mark my total laps hit 50 and then 75 laps at the 3 hour mark. I am learning all this in hind site.  (I knew I was at 91 3.5 hours in but other than that I just ran.) At the 4 hour mark I hit 100 and then hit 126 (34 miles) as time expired. Crazy how consistent it ended up.  A lot of the fast dudes at the first slowed down towards the end and for some reason my legs felt great the whole way. I learned as we gathered up our stuff that I was first for the Men and second overall.  A super talented lady did 127 laps!  Speaking of ladies, Izzy ran hard for 50 laps then walked the rest. For a total of around 19 miles! Double the distance she has ever run before! 

I am super glad to see my body hold up through the week and feel extra confident I can knock off some goals for the year. Namely, sub 8 hours at  the Buffalo 50 Miler, sub 3:10 marathon, complete another 100 Miler, and summit 100 mountains in 2014.  Oh and one more thing I won a pair of Altra shoes for taking first. 

Hmm is there room in the closet next to my Sportiva, Nike, Motrail, Hokas, and Peral Izumis.  I am curious to see how they compare and which ones to get??