With October coming to an end, I wanted to briefly look back on how this month went.
The twin highlights for this month were my trip to Murrells Inlet, SC, where I spent eleven days at one of my favorite places, while the other was, naturally, ironing out the 2027 race schedule.
Of course, ‘ironing out the 2027 race schedule’ is a bit dramatic. The schedule was what it was, but in the last month, I’ve committed to three long ultras (Eastern States, Myrtle Beach 24-hour, and MMT). I’ve still got Old Dominion, which doesn’t open until December, as well as a few others left to throw my name into, in addition to the various FA runs (RR, EF, CF, etc.) I plan to run next year, but which don’t open registration until closer to the actual race dates. At this point, it’s looking like I’ll be shooting for half a dozen 100-mile efforts next year, but more might be added as opportunities manifest. This will be an obvious jump for me, so it’ll be interesting to see how it ends up shaking out, especially since most of these events will be new to me.
As for my trip, I talked about it (here). This was my second trip to SC this year, and I always look forward to them. I never know how many of them are left, so I do my best to make the most of each one.
Training-wise, it was another 230-mile month with 20,000 feet of climbing, give or take. The run streak survived (for another month). I did three long runs of 20 miles, but didn’t manage to get my “big effort” in, as I talked about in my October preview. The timing just didn’t work out, and I didn’t want to force something in just for the sake of it. The training has been going well lately, so why mess with a good thing?
I toyed with the idea of signing up for Fire on the Mountain, which will take place on Sunday, November 1st, but ultimately decided against it. I ran FOTM on both of my previous training blocks for Devil Dog, and after running 5:37 last year, the desire to go back again and try to beat my time just didn’t sound appealing. With Stone Mill only six days after FOTM, I didn’t feel like the cumulative stress from both events was worth the added recovery time (I’ve done the double twice). I would like to get back to FOTM in the future and go for finish number three, but I don’t know when that will happen. Sometimes we have to pick and choose our battles, and this year FOTM was not in the cards.
On a happier note, I think I’ve decided on the shoe choice for DD. (Sometimes it’s the little things that keep things interesting.)
Until next time.