Pre-race Thoughts - Goals For Green Lakes 50K

Well, the hard training is done, the hotel reservation booked and the gear is packed and ready to go. The only thing left to do is to run the race itself. Oh, and the long-ass drive to Fayetteville, NY! I’m actually pretty excited about running my first 50K. I’ve put in some very long runs this year on the rugged and mountainous Skyline and Wapack trails, up to 6 and 7 hours on my feet, but the miles never reached official ultra distance. My goal for tomorrow is to finally join the ranks of the ultra marathoner.

Speaking of goals, I have a few I hope to accomplish at the GLER 50K. First and foremost is to finish. Some of you may be thinking that isn’t much of a goal. I, on the other hand think it is. I have too much respect for the distance to think it’s an automatic. In a race of 31 miles, anything can happen. It's very easy to trip on a rock or root, fall and twist an ankle, or even worse break something. Hot and/or humid weather or poor hydration/nutrition can also put an end to your race at any moment.

Goal number two is to finish under 6:30. If none of the above mentioned misfortunes befall me, I think I have a good shot of running this time. My long training runs on tougher terrain indicate this is possible.

Goal number three is my stretch goal. Everything would have to be spot on for this to happen. I would have to have one of those days when everything felt into place and you feel like you can run forever. If this happens and I run a perfect race, my goal is to break six hours. I’ll settle for goal #1, be happy with goal #2 and will be thrilled to reach goal #3. It’s up to me and the ultra gods now.

If anyone is interested in following my progress in (relative) real-time, the RD will have a webcast up and running on race day. I’m not sure how much information will be shown but at a minimum it will have the runner’s splits at 12.5K, 25K, 37.5K and finishing time. The link to the webcast is HERE. My bib # is 124 if you need to enter it for the webcast.

Off to NY in a few hours....