The Ultra Experience

Here's to the adventures of my life which are usually ultra marathon trail running or fly fishing but may include other trips, experiences, thoughts, opinions, or pretty much whatever I want. As co-founder of Altra Footwear my life and adventures seemingly revolve more around developing and promoting the best footwear in the world...and I love it!

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Preview- The Bear 100


Wow, it's come quick! The Bear 100 is only three days away. I've been ready to run this thing for the last two weeks! (I hate tapering) Anyway, it looks like it's going to be an exciting race both in terms of terrain and competition. The autumn colors have turned and this new course looks fantastic. Lets hope it's marked well. I like the crew accessibility and what looks like a beautiful course over decently runnable terrain.

The competition looks stacked though. It has gotten increasingly interesting as the race has neared. Jeff Browning is out but coming off his amazing Wasatch victory Geoff Roes is in, as is patagonia athlete Ty Draney. The competition to me breaks down like so:
1-Geoff Roes wins in style...again. 20 hrs.
2-Nate McDowell hangs for 75 miles buts ends 2nd.
3-Ty Draney another solid outing in 3rd.

After this point my race predictions get a bit fuzzy because it seems harder to predict my own finishing time then that of others, however, here goes:
4-Leland is a stud and will run well despite still recovering from running an awesome Wasatch.
5-Brian Beckstead- ok I'm going out on a limb and putting myself in 5th. It matches my goal time and I think I'm up for a good race, but obviously it's not set in stone.
Eric Storheim, great runner as we know but can he hold on for 100 miles?
Jared Campbell, no 3rd place this year, not with a bum knee and three weeks after UTMB.
Christian Johnson, I know he wants to rip off a good 100 miler!

With a new course it's hard to gauge where I'll be and really game plan this race out. I haven't raced since June 28th at the Logan Peak Challenge (the 1st 11 miles of Bear before it broke off) but I am so ready to race! I've had a couple of small injuries this last couple of months but nothing serious. My shin splints are pretty much gone but my hamstring is still nagging me a little. I'm not really worried about either. I just don't want serious blister or stomach issues. Hopefully I've prepared thoroughly and taken the necessary precautions to avoid those things.

For pacing I decided that 15 minute miles are about right for this course, my fitness, and my experience level. I feel that this is a conservative pace but I intend to stick pretty close to it for the first half of the race and then maintain to the finish. Even splits puts me at 25hrs but if things go right I would like to finish under 24 hrs but that would be a perfect race and we all know how Ultra's are. Anyway, here's to a happy Bear trail!!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Glad you are still running. Look at you, and your ultra-marathons. I'm training for a 5k in October. :-)