Joining a race again?? Yes.
Popping my cherry in marathon...?? Another yes.
I have registered for the Energizer Night Race on the 16th of April 2011 in the 42km event, and yes it is my first ever marathon race but that is not what I am going to announce here. I have got something more insane in my mind.
After reading about the MR25 race report recently, I got this thought about doing an ultra but what if it is not an official race, what if I just do it just for the sake of doing it. No organiser, no supporter, no race support, no free vest, no medal, no finisher tee and of course free of charge which mean I need to get all the food ready for my ultra, all the drink and medical supplies just in case...... (touch wood)
Would I be disciplined enough to train for it? Would I just stop after just 10km into it? 15km ? 20km? Even if one have paid to join a race, they might even stop half way. Tonnes of question cross my mind about running this ultra that I want to do. The major one would be what will be my motivation to keep on running for 12 hours.
I had a trail run on the first day of the year and I was thinking what I want to do on the last day of the year and then I asked my girlfriend,"How about I run a 12 hours trail run from 7am to 7pm on the last day of the year (i.e.: 31 December 2011)". Well... of course the answer was a big "CRAZY"! Hehe!! What else could I expected with such an idea.
Anyway, I have decided to do it. So, my plan is, the first three months of the year would be to train for my maiden marathon race, and use the experience especially the fuelling part and the timing to set the benchmark for my ultra. The remaining eight months would be to brace myself ready for this crazy stuff. Some might say one single marathon race would not serve enough experience to run an ultra, what else when there is no medical support, no support crew and doing it all alone... in the trail... Fuh!! Just the thought of doing it sound crazy and I want to do as much as possible in 12 hours (I has actually set to finish at least 5 loops of it which is roughly 75km)!! I would definitely get a big NO NO from all the experience runner's friends i bet. But... well... I will just go for it!!
Am I too naive and make a such decision? Or am I too arrogant and over estimate myself? Come the last day of the year... it will be answered. For now, all I can do is plan my training and try to follow it as close as possible and hope that I will stay injury free through out the year.
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