Raccoon Hunting We Will Go…..

Man, these FREAKS in my head are hard to please. THEY are never satisfied. An 18 minute 5k followed by a 4:26 50k, in a pink tutu, the next day? Nope not enough. Okay, how about a marathon PR a week later? Nope. One more marathon PR less than 2 weeks after that? Sure…. that got me about 4 days. Now THEY are ready to move on. So WE shall.

I have been fascinated by the ultra scene for a while. It amazes me that people can go so far- and actually enjoy doing it. The great mystery of endurance is intriguing and I have often wondered just how far I can go. The first quest was the 50k. Then 50 miles. Still the VOICES refuse to acknowledge me as an “ultra-marathoner” until I complete the next step.

I have been toying with the idea of running a 100 miler for a while but every one that I looked at seemed to fall at the wrong time of year. This last Monday, a friend from the dailymile suggested the Rocky Raccoon 100 in February. After looking at the website, I realized that this might be the one. My search for the “perfect” opportunity is over and the CLUB is going on a Raccoon Hunt.

Convincing myself was easy. Convincing my wife? A tad more difficult. She is way smarter and much more careful than I am. Not to mention that she thinks it is crazy to run such absurd distances. But she also knows how bad I want it and her support is amazing. She is on-board and will be part of the crew, along with a couple of awesome dudes (and full fledged members of the Idiot’s Running Club) that will come along and pace me through the hard miles. Of course I had to make some concessions- the main one being a bump up in life insurance…. guess that’s fair.

This afternoon I signed up for The Rocky Raccoon 100 Mile Trail Race in Huntsville, Texas on February 5th. No backing out now- and I feel the time is right. I am coming off my best year of running. I’ve hit and exceeded EVERY goal for the year and now it is time to move on to the next quest. It is time to find out exactly what I can do, not only physically but also mentally. I will probably continue to train as I have and not really add many more miles. There is only so much time that I can commit- especially through the holiday’s- but I’ll figure it out. Maybe even catch a training plan from one of those famous running publications…….NOT.