Eat, Sleep, Repeat

Wasatch prep is done. I didn't end up having time to scout the entire route but the 20 miles that I didn't see will just give me something new to help pass the time on race day.

I did my last run that I will do until race day today. A mellow 9 miles on very flat terrain. Just planning to rest up the next couple days.

I feel really good about the condition I've been able to get myself into considering that it was less than two months ago that I felt so wasted from my GDR attempt that I was wondering if I would be able to compete again this entire year. Now though I have not only recovered from that, but I'm pretty sure that I've gotten myself into as good of shape as I've ever been in.

The weather looks great for Saturday. High temps should be in the 70's with nothing but bright sunshine all day and clear, star filled skies at night. A couple days ago a cold front came through with heavy rains and snow above 7,000 feet. That moisture should go a long ways in helping with the dust and sand on the trails.

I have no way of knowing just how my body's going to feel on Saturday but it's certainly a nice feeling to have no doubts about my process of preparing for this race. Perhaps once the race is done I will notice some things that I should have done differently but right now I feel very good about my chances of having a good day on Saturday.

For now I just need to focus on eating, resting, and sleeping well the next couple days. I know I won't get much sleep on Friday night so I really need to sleep a lot these next two nights.

The race starts at 5:00am Saturday. I wish that all these races didn't always start so early. The shuttle bus from Salt Lake City leaves at 4am. That means I need to get up around 3:30! The first 2 hours of the race will be run in the dark. Why do we need to run in the dark in the morning when everyone, no matter how fast, is going to run in the dark that night as well? I don't mean this as a specific criticism of Wasatch, but rather Ultra races in general. It makes sense to start a marathon or other shorter races early to beat the heat of the day, but when a race is going to go beyond 20 hours you aren't going to beat the heat of the day by starting early, you're just going to run a different stretch of the route in the heat of the day. OK, enough about that rant, it's not really important.

For those interested in following the race you can check out the race website. I'm not sure if they will be posting progress as the race is happening, but hopefully they do. At the very least there should be results up once we finish.