30 second round-up: I'm glad to have come through the past through weeks with some positive outcomes. Lots of doctors trips and hospital trips and visits to the physiotherapist. My back injury has made some improvement but I'm still in pain - it's an ongoing process with lots of work to do to find a new normal for me. There has been a lot of reflection and re-evaluation during this time. With 10 weeks until the SDW100 it is very clear that I won't be able to race it. This is extremely disappointing for me as it is a bucket-list race (not that I really do bucket lists).
I entered the SDW100 for a number of reasons:
- UTMB points
- Western States qualification
- it's a Centurion race and I've always wanted to run one of their races as I've heard such good things about them.
- to explore an area I have never been to with what looks like stunning scenery.
- I wanted to do a race where nobody would know me and I would know nobody and it would be a little adventure with nobody to measure myself against (or JUDGE myself against!)
- I wanted to run a more runnable 100 miler and get a 'good' time/result.
So, the face that I have done basically no training whatsoever with 10 weeks to go and I'm struggling with this ongoing injury means this will definitely NOT be a runnable 100 miler and I certainly not get a good time - in fact it will be a race against the cut-offs (again *sad face*). I WILL be disappointed with my result because it won't be that 'fast' result I have been wanting to target.
It will not be a solo adventure far away with nobody to compare myself to (or judge myself against, and be disappointed once again with my rubbish result). Whilst I am going to the race by myself and will NOT have a support crew or pacer-runners, there will be others there I know and whilst I knew there would be this possibility with Centurion races being so popular, I had secretly and I suppose selfishly hoped that this would be my race for the year. It kind of takes away from the 'adventure' aspect for me. I think if I want to be sure of having my own little race then I need to pick something more obscure next time! Or learn to stop judging myself compared to everyone else because there will never be a positive outcome and inevitably I am setting myself up for a fall.
I will be exploring the area and hopefully seeing some scenery later this month when I do a few short recce runs on the route as part of a wee break from work.
After I have done the recce runs I will decide whether or not I am going to run the race or pull out (and get some return on my entry fee). The ONLY reasons I will be running would be for the UTMB points and Western States qualification. So it will be a case of survival within the time needed to achieve those. And I will only go if I think I can survive without doing any major damage to my back.
I have bigger, much BIGGER events in the pipeline that I need to make sure I am as strong as possible for and there is no point breaking myself even further.
So, not quite 30 sections but that just about sums up the situation and my intentions.
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