Almost There ...

Eight days to go before my first important race of the year.  I'm ready to go but in a bit of an unusual situation really.

I've now taken part in thirteen ultra events and won three of them.  Of the other ten, one was a solo run and two were trail races in which I wasn't competing seriously.  So ... I've competed seriously in nine ultras and won three, not a bad record overall.

But now, for the first time I think, before the race starts I'm expecting to win.  In a few of the others I knew I could win ... but this feeling is different because I know I should win.  I've got to try and keep that pressure under control.

As part of my planning I looked at the route map and decided what my times should be at 5 mile intervals.  But yesterday I received an email from the organisers which shows the exact location of all the checkpoints ... and also shows that the points on the route map at 5 miles, 10 miles, 15 miles, etc are all wrong.  Still, I'm very glad to get this revised information - changing my plans slightly won't be too difficult and will make things easier during the race.

Thanks to those people who have voted in the poll about my finishing time.  You seem to have quite a bit of confidence in my abilities.  I'm not telling what I'm actually aiming for but my planned running pace (minutes per mile) does seem slow compared to normal.  But maybe that's because I'm also using this race to try out a few new things regarding nutrition and pacing.