After Kettle thoughts and ramblings

Wow, has it already been a month since Kettle? Time is flying and before long I'll be doing it again at the Leadville Trail 100 August 22. The aftermath after winning the Kettle Moraine 100 was awesome, for a couple weeks I felt like a rock star. I had some many nice comments coming from all kinds of runners it was amazing. Having all these other runners who I have looked up to in my short ultra-running career saying all these great things about me, made my head swell up bigger than my legs in the days after Kettle. It was truly a great experience, i never expected to win or even had the thought I could win. But what a great way to have all your hard work and training pay off. I know it was not the fastest time ever ran at Kettle but a win is a win none the less and to get my first ultra win in a 100 was amazing. However, I do think the 100 is my best race, I'm not really fast but the farther we go the better my chances are of having a good finish. I seem to have some really good endurance, where that came from I have no idea. I never was a runner and never done any kind of endurance sport prior to taking up running in late 2007. Last weekend I ran the 15 mile at Psyco Psummer for fun and had a blast. Was probably one of the funnest runs I have had all year. It was nice to just go out and run for fun and not worry about racing. I had fun stopping at all the aid stations and chatting with the volunteers and thanking them. I also had a lot of people I have never meet come up and congratulate me and tell me they read my blog or listened to my interview on endurance planet. Funny thing I didn't think anyone read my blog so my posts have been really sporadic. I will try to do a better job of posting now that I know at least a few people read my blog. On a training note. My recovery from Kettle was long, it took me 3 full weeks to recover. I have finally gotten back into the swing of things with and 85 mile week and a 70 mile week last week.
Thanks again to all my friends who have really helped me a lot with my running. Your advice and constant encouragement has really helped me a lot. You all know who you are!

Kettle Moraine 100

Well here we go again, I had the Kettle Moraine 100 June 5th in Lagrange WI, on my list for this year and procrastinated signing up until last week. So now that my name is on the entry list and I only have 5 more weeks to get ready, all the worrying and feelings of not being ready are back.
Every time I have ran a race over 26 miles I have never felt like I was ready. Some where along the way in my so far short ultra career (1 year 6 months) I went from just wanting to complete an ultra to wanting to go out and compete. I'm not sure when or how that happened but it did, and I have found myself training and running harder. Most people think I'm crazy and that I probably over train, but I always feel like I'm under trained going into a race. And I always feel like I could have done more. Compounding the issues are, I still feel like I don't really know what I'm doing out there. Basically to this point I have just been winging it. I have never really had a fueling or hydration plan in place, and am not sure how I've gotten as far as I have. Maybe this all comes from experience and with more experience maybe I'll feel better about my training and racing. But for now I'm sure I will ever feel confident heading into a 100 miler. Of course maybe no one ever feels confident going into a 100. There is something about the 100 that really intrigues me and really gets my blood pumping. I love the challenge and love pushing the limits, and seeing how far I can go. I have thoughts of running races farther than 100 miles just to see if I can. And to see if I can find my breaking point. Dig deeper, push harder and never settle.