Well, it's gotten to be that time of year again... that is time to start thinking a bit about next year.
I already know that I'm going to be running the H.U.R.T. 100 in Hawaii on January 17th and the Iditarod Trail Invitational beginning on March 1st. After this things get a little unclear in my mind right now. My hope is to get into The Hardrock 100 which is run the second week of July. If I do get into The Hardrock (as a first time entrant odds are not in my favor) then I will probably run one of the 100 milers in May, likely the Massanuten on the 16th, and then another 100 miler in September, either Wasatch, Bear, or Angeles Crest. If I don't get into Hardrock then I'm thinking I'd like to try to qualify for Western States (June 27th) by finishing top 3 in either The American River 50 (April 4th) or the Miwok 100k (May 2nd). And then for good measure I'm thinking it would be fun to run the full Grand Slam of Ultra Running which includes Western States (June 27th), Vermont (July 18th), Leadville (August 22nd), and Wasatch (September 12th) in 4 consecutive months.
Biggest problem with all of this is that it all hinges on whether or not I get lucky and get into the Hardrock, but I wouldn't know that until February, but I would need to enter some of the other races before that time. At some point here in the next several weeks I'll need to sit down with a calender and try to plan this all out because right now it's all kind of making my head spin. I suppose I could just scrap it all and ride the GDR again...
i too want to get into hardrock, and the whole season hinges on whether we get in or not!.. soooo, i'm completely avoiding thinking about it. it's also hard to consider these things when you are injured.
ReplyDeleteFinishing the GDR would make you a happy man!
ReplyDeleteYou can always go back to the GDR but how many years will you have the speed to go sub 3:00 at CP?
ReplyDeleteyeah eric,
ReplyDeletei'm definitely not forgetting my hopes of trying to run crow pass as a focus race next summer. the gdr definitely won't be happening again for me for at least a couple more years. if i get into hardrock then there's no way crow pass is going to happen, but if i don't get into hardrock and am unable to qualify for western states then it will almost certainly happen. just won't know about all that until sometime in the late winter/early spring.
I thought you said last year that Western States wasn't your kind of thing? To much hype and too many people. What happened?
ReplyDeleteanon,
ReplyDeleteyeah, western is definitely not my thing (as compared to more low key races) but i'm still very much interested in running it sometime... mostly because it's very exciting to run against as many fast runners as possible and the lineup for western next year will be very impressive to say the least. you will notice though that it falls as a backup plan behind hardrock. it's not anywhere near the top of my list of races i want to run in the next few years but i do still want to give it a go at least once and next year it might fit nicely into my schedule.