That being said, I have had a pretty successful training set so far. My weekly mileage has been more than it has been in a long time and we have even been hitting the track pretty regularly. Back in February I ran the Dawson Forest Half Marathon, and despite not being in very good shape still managed to squeeze out a win (1:45 on a long and muddy course). Since then I haven't done any racing until a couple of weeks ago when Mitch and I decided to run the Chattooga 50k as a training run. We agreed to run together and just put in a solid training effort. In the end we crossed the line together in 5:10 and tied for the win. If you ever have the chance to run one of the races put on by Ultras on Trails, go for it. They put on a great event and the people are awesome. I was especially happy with this run as my longest run for 2013 was 2 hours and I tried some new nutrition things that really seemed to take care of the problems I had been having. See my DRT50k write up for more on that.
All in all, I am pretty happy with my training so far and after Leadville I am hoping to make it down to the North Face Endurance Challenge Atlanta for the 50 miler. I'm thinking that this training will be a good springboard to that race and with any luck I will run a good race. I think on the right day I would have a pretty legit shot at the podium there and TNF usually sends one of their big boys to the race. It would be fun to try and mix it up with those guys. So that's what I've been up to as far as training and racing goes lately. Maybe I can get a little more consistent with this blog thing.
To close I was thinking about a popular Steve Prefontaine quote the other day on a run. "To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift." Most anyone that has been around running for very long, especially track and field, has heard this quote a thousand times just as I have. But this time I began to think about it differently. Let me preface this by saying that I do not think Pre meant this to be a biblical quote in any way, though I do not know the status of his heart. But being a believer I try to think of everything in every situation by how God wants us to see the world. I began to relate this quote to the woman who only had two copper coins to give: "And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury. And He saw a poor widow putting in two small copper coins. And He said, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all of them; for they all out of their surplus put into the offering; but she out of her poverty put in all that she had to live on.” (Luke 21:1-4) God has given us all gifts and abilities of different amounts, but what I think is important is to do the most with the gifts that we have been given to glorify Him no matter what pace we may run. I think God delights in us giving all we have to His glory. So to run a mediocre race is to give "from our surplus." The other thing I feel led to figure out is how to use my running gift to benefit others. I have been trying to think of a good run/challenge that I could use to raise money for a few groups that are answering God's call in the world.
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| Me and Mitch at the DRT50K |
