2015 Summer/Fall Race Plans

Recovery time is over, it's time to race again!  Actually I've already done a few shorter races, both on trail and roads this spring, plus ongoing through the summer is the Summer Trail Running Series, 4 races between 5K and 5M at various venues.  It's fun to open it up once in awhile, and good practice to run trails faster than I do in an ultra.

Next up for the longer races is Highland Sky, a tough 40 mile race in the Dolly Sods wilderness in West Virginia on June 20.  I've run survived this once before, and wrote this race report.  I really haven't been too motivated to train since Umstead so I'm just in this to have fun and finish and hang out with a bunch of other friends who will run this too.

The heat of August means it's time for the Jarmans Invitational Marathon.  Everything about this race sucks.  That's not just my opinion, it's the tagline for the race.  5 times up and down a pretty steep gravel road, 7600' of gain/loss.  This "marathon" is 29 miles, that's how much it sucks.  Invitational?  More like a court summons.  You need to check out the vids for it on the facebook link above.  Last year was actually fairly cool and overcast and it didn't suck at all.  I'm expecting payback this year.

I'm trying to build a vacation around a race each year.  Last year I ran a marathon in Ireland.  This year I'm heading to Bend, Oregon for the Flagline Trailfest 50k on Sept 20.  Mostly it's just an excuse to see an area I've been wanting to check out for awhile.  I fly into Portland and I'll spend a day and a half along the Columbia Gorge, doing a few sightseeing hikes and runs on the trails there.  Lots of waterfalls.  My drive to Bend takes me past Mount Hood where I'll check out another trail or two.  Bend has some great looking trails in and around town, along with some brewpubs.  The race itself is just outside Bend with start/finish at Mount Bachelor.  I'll wrap up the trip with a stop at the McKenzie River trail, and a night in Eugene/Springfield with a pilgrimage to Hayward Field and/or Pre's Trail before ending up back in Portland.  The more I'm planning this, the more I'm looking forward to it.  It will definitely be a relaxed race so that I'm able to do all the other trails I'd like to see.

My fall goal race is Peak to Creek, formerly known as Ridge to Bridge, near Morganton, NC in October.  It's a downhill marathon on mostly unpaved roads, 2800 ft net drop with almost no climbing and no steep drops.  My goal is to safely qualify for Boston for 2017 (2016 qualifying ends in September).  I've run Boston twice, 2011 and 2013.  For 2015 I was fast enough to register but since they went over the limit I didn't make the updated cut-off.  My try for 2016 was a crash-and-burn at Steamtown last fall.  For 2017 I get 10 extra minutes, since I'll be 55 by that race and my qualifying time is 3:40.

Peak to Creek course profile

 I'll probably wrap the year up with the Richmond marathon.  It's a good fall back in case something goes wrong at Peak to Creek, and it's a well organized race.

This would put me at 8 marathons/ultras for the year, one more than I've ever done in a year, and 47 total.  8 seems like a lot (for some people, not to others), but I'm really only racing 2 of them hard.