Planning for the fall......

I spent a good part of the morning looking at fall races, I found a few that look interesting.

I found another race calendar that I think I had looked at before but failed to bookmark. It is at RealEndurance.com. I scoured through the fall races, many were already on my considerations list but I did pick up a couple more.

One is in Illinois called the Farmdale 33, it is held on October 18th and I have added it to my consideration list. It is a good possibility and looks like a decent course. Not too hard but enough variety to be interesting and it would take care of Illinois in my 50 state quest.

I also added to my considerations list the Bohemian Alps 50k, it is held on Sept 20th in Nebraska but it looks to be on gravel roads.

Might be kind of hot and maybe a little boring. But it would take care of Nebraska in my 50 states quest. Kind of cool that Ultras count in getting to the 50 states, they may be my path.

The problem I am having is that I am trying to decide if I am mentally ready to go for a 50 miler in the fall. I still consider a 100 beyond comprehension (at least my comprehension) but I am starting to think that a 50 is doable.

It was a goal of mine at the start of this year but I didn't think I would get there this year. I did do a bit of thinking about a 50 when I was completing my 2nd loop at Afton, could I do a 3rd loop. I think I could have. I am sure it would have been a struggle but if I fixed the blisters that would have carried me through the first 5 miles, the next 5 would have been hard and the last 5, well they would have been the last 5 except I still would need add to 3.5 more (ouch) . Ok, still a bit for me but I will be coming off two marathons in August at moderate altitude so Superior is a possibility.

It got reinforced in my last post as Londell suggested I do the 50 at Superior and catch up to him on his journey to 100, good plan. Just thinking he would be ahead of me, would keep me moving forward. Steve thought Superior wouldn't be a good first one, I have run a little (ok very little) on the Superior trail. And considering what he puts himself through, if he thinks it is hard, what does that mean?

Well this is the fun part for me to think and plan about fall race possibilities. Last year at this time, I was struggling to get motivated to do a fall marathon and now I am thinking that I could finish a 5o miler. Kind of a nice change in the state of my running life...................