Hard to believe that tomorrow morning’s Montalto Challenge will mark my 8th race event in as many consecutive weekends. It’s been a fun ride, these past two months, getting out on the trails, and the roads, through the towns, the woods and over the mountains, mixing it up with all sorts of folks. Running back to back races, over varying distances and terrain has opened new doors for me- it has revealed strengths I didn’t realize I have, as well as a few weaknesses. Weaknesses I will most certainly attempt to address.
Admittedly, since Bull Run, I haven’t made an honest effort at recovering. The big weeks and big workouts resumed immediately following that race, right through Promise Land last weekend, where I do believe I paid the price having no real pep left in the legs climbing mountains. From the go, up the first climb, I felt it. Or should I say, I didn’t feel it, because there wasn’t much there. Still, what an event David Horton has assembled in The Promise Land, and I did my best to enjoy it. The stories are all true: it’s hard, it’s beautiful, it’s significantly more than 31 miles in length, Clark Zealand’s 2002 course record was indeed super stout and Eric Grossman’s epic run, where he lowered Clark’s time by four minutes and 48 seconds, will live on as a memorable performance. If you haven’t read Eric’s race report, by the way, you’re missing out; it is a beautiful piece.
I’m certainly looking forward to Montalto tomorrow but at this point I’ll be glad when next weekend rolls around. It is time for really long runs in the mountains. It is then when I’ll figure out if all of this short spring racing business was actually beneficial in terms of lessons learned and building my fitness, or if it were only a fun ride.
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