This Ain’t a Scene, It’s a Trail Race

I know I haven’t posted a blog for a couple of weeks. It has been rather hectic. And there’s been a lot happened since last post. The TL:DR story is:

I hurt my ankle and had to back off intensity and volume but it is has recovered. I have run the course fully. I have been to see a few bands. My brother turned 50 (fifty). And I am racing next weekend. No, I am running next weekend.

The Sidlaw Ultra is Saturday (30th Nov) and I am on the start line for it. This is part of a bigger picture building up to a race in April, 24 hours on a track.

Sidlaw is a 43 mile ultra on terrain which would be best described as variable! From Tarmac to heather to bog to gorse, it has it all. It is deceptive looking on a GPX but on the ground it is much tougher than it appears.

My ankle is gnarly just now with lateral movement. With this in mind, on the day all I am really looking for is to get a good day out and a strong training run. I want to finish and feel I am in a good jump off point for the winter block ahead.

That means I won’t be racing folks or worrying about time. It is about fuelling, fighting, finishing and feeling fulfilled. That is a lot of F words right?

The idea for doing the race was to get out of my comfort zone. A semi-remote winter ultra is just that. I am a tarmac treading tortoise. Yeah, I have won a couple of trail races in the past but really, I am a rhythm runner who likes to find a mid-gear and cruise.

It will be hard to not get to drawn into pushing early on but if you offered me a strong feeling at the finish, no ankle issues and a continued lighting of the ultra fire at 4pm on Saturday, I would buy that twice.

I will write a proper post race report, and a proper reflection on the block. But for now, I am focusing on staving off the onset of taperitis.