Doing an ultra has been in the works for several years now. Ever since college, it seemed like trail races would be a good extension of my love for training on the trails in Williamsburg, but the idea of moving from the comfortably short 3000m distance of the steeplechase to 30+ miles, combined with the time commitment of teaching, kept me away.
Despite these barriers, I've been toying with the idea for the last few years, even going so far as to register for a few local Vegas trail races, usually following summers where I had some great runs and encouragement from Brain Schmidt, a former high school coach of mine and ultra-runner who I now work with at a running camp in West Virginia, though inevitably, I never made it to the start line of these races. This was probably for the best, as 11 hour teaching days in a middle school do not lend themselves to effective training and recovery.
As I started my doctoral program this August, I was pretty set on throwing in the towel on even aspirations towards competing again until a friend of mine convinced me to tag along and race the Imogene Pass Run (more on that later). It was epic, and thrilling, and after that, I started setting my sights and gearing up for some further trail/ultra racing in 2011.
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