Decision Time

I have been vacillating back and forth on which race to do on April 10th, originally this wasn't even an issue as I wasn't planning on doing any races on the 10th, then Chippewa was canceled, then it came back. The fact that it moved from the 24th to the 10th was no big deal except for my fear that we would be running in snow again, now that the snow has melted that is of less of a concern. So I would be doing Chippewa without a doubt except Wayne and Karen are planning on running McNaughton and well they would like company. So they have been giving me reasons to run it with them and then you add in the fact that I have been non committal towards Chippewa and I haven't exactly discouraged them. I am not sure why I am non committal towards Chippewa but for some reason I am. Maybe it is a been there, done that frame of mind.

So when I went into this weekend, I mentally set a deadline of next Sunday.

On Saturday, Wayne and Karen were heading to Afton to run hills to get ready for McNaughton I couldn't join them but I did mention to Wayne that if he joined me at Murphy on Sunday he might be able to help me make up mind. And guess what he did, he drove up from Rochester simply to lobby me and he said it provided him a chance to go visit his brother but I am pretty sure he would not have come up today without the taunt.

We met at 9:00 am in the horse lot, my plan was to run the southern section and then run the northern section and then do a repeat on the southern section. Wayne and I talked a bit about a lot of things one of which was that if I wanted a t-shirt for McNaughton, I needed to sign up tomorrow (so much for my deadline), we also got to relive Surf the Murph and on that note, I took a few pictures.

As we headed back into the horse lot area, Wayne said he kept thinking Londell would be there to hand off some food and drink and get us on our way. This picture is from the spur leaving the horse section as you head around towards the northern section.

Remember that section Les added so we could get the view of Minneapolis, I do and I am still not sure how steep it is but here are a few shots.

Almost to the top

And now the view, sorry Les but the phone camera didn't do it justice.

Wayne and I ran together for the first 12 miles, we had stopped at the mt. bike lot and then looped back to the horse lot as I had decided to avoid running anymore in the southern section but instead I was going to run the whole northern Surf the Murph loop which would get me to the 5 hour point.

Oh yeah about that decision I need to make, well Wayne and Karen have been lobbying a bit and Karen probably made the best point in a recent email. I had said that I want to keep my Chippewa streak going and she said:

"Mike, keep in mind the thing about going for streaks, you have to do them for a long time to even mean anything, (if then it even does). How many years, especially at your starting age are you willing to devote to chippewa? Are you going to keep doing it when you are mid 70's?"

Great point, how long would I be willing to keep it going? What if it gets canceled again next year?

So as I bid Wayne good bye back at the horse lot, I was still feeling good and figured I had plenty of time to ponder my choices. Before I knew it I was heading towards the number 6 hills. Have I mentioned that they are still very steep, anyway, as I went up them, I thought McNaughton is supposed to be hilly, what the heck am I thinking, I am not in shape for Chippewa let alone McNaughton. As I got up the last hill and headed back down, I started feeling better. I was tired out but still running but could I go another 30 miles, No Way!. Then I thought about the comment I made to Karyn when we were running yesterday or did she make it to me, long run brain strikes again. Anyway, the comment was you condition your mind for the distance you are going. We were going 8 yesterday and that's how much we had, today I was going 21 to 22 (5 hours regardless of mileage) and that is what I had in me.

I could go into detail, yet again about which one to do but frankly it's not worth it. If I do Chippewa, I am sure I will finish and I might get a PR but not by much. If I do McNaughton, I am not so sure that I am ready but I should be able to do it, right?

So Chippewa or McNaughton, decision tomorrow, that is if I want to be guaranteed the t-shirt and if I run 50 miles, I darn well want the t-shirt.