Good morning friends! Hope everyone’s first week of the new year went well and you are still feeling that good momentum from the turning over of a new year. It is race week for me and I have a mixture of emotions bubbling up in my stomach. On the one hand, Houston is most definitely not an A race for me, so there’s not a performance pressure. On the other hand, this is the week last year where things started going off the rails already for me when I had to not do Houston due to a niggle that showed up race week. I had planned to shoot my shot for the OTQ at Houston and then I really never got my chance last year. As I have reflected, I had to pivot a lot and miss a lot of races last year, so race week can bring up that apprehension. I will feel a lot better when I safely arrive in Houston and can settle into things. Hopefully it will be a fun marathon experience. I have run 47+ marathons (38 sub 3 hour marathons included) and yet I still get nervous to run *fast (whatever fast means on the day). I’ve had some great days at Houston (2 of my fastest times including my PR) and I have some solidly good enough days at Houston. I am ready to, as I like to say, “have a day”.
And as soon as Houston is complete it is eyes on the prize for the following weekend at Coldwater Rumble 100 mile. I am looking forward to the opportunity to run in the desert again and do an Aravaipa race as they do an amazing job. I am nervous since 2023 was not the kindest to me at this distance, so I am looking forward to getting back on the horse and running the way I know I am capable. My biggest goal is to run my own race and bring in the perspective and mindset that I have worked so hard to build over this training block. I am focused on being calm, patient and focused on my own running. The course is new this year and so it will be interesting to get to discover how the course runs and see what I can do. It is a great opportunity for me to practice some of the skills and tools that I will need to implement for FURTHER.
I will also be approaching these two races with a focus on gaining more information that will be pertinent to FURTHER, so I am excited to utilize the races not just for their own merit, but as a tools for growth towards my ultimate goals!
Not much more to say this week as this past week has just been a quite recovery week from the double Goggins’ challenge. I do post daily updates on my YouTube for anyone who wants to get into the full nitty gritty details!
Keep up the great work!