Continued from Two Oceans Ultra Marathon – Part 1
OK folks, the countdown to the race day clock is ticking…. loudly. A few more pieces of the puzzle came together last week. Dumb administrative stuff like notifying my bank and cell phone carrier about international travel, etc.
My last long run is done. I don’t know if my training formula was perfect but I don’t think it was a bad one. My rationale is this; I have “faked” my way through many marathons with much less training than I have put into this effort. So…. for this journey, I have put in some great long runs and I would consider myself in pretty good marathon shape.
Am I in great ultra marathon shape? I will answer that question post race. But my belief is that if I am in good marathon shape, and I can be strong through the first 26.2 miles of this race, I will find a way to get through the last 9.
These last 2 weeks will consist of shorter but still some intense runs and a little cross training. But the most important goal at this stage of the game is to remain healthy, injury free, and in a good mental and emotional state to race a 56 KM ultra in South Africa with one of my favorite charities – Grassroot Soccer.
I know where everything is that I want to bring or pack and I will take care of all of that next weekend. I even found my Stand Up 2 Cancer / SURVIVOR buff that Ethan gave me which I had misplaced! Good karma has been restored with that find. I will also pick up all of my race day nutrition needs next weekend. All of my travel docs and details are in place.
While of course I am very stoked about this race itself, there are many things that I am looking forward to regarding this adventure. The international “fun run” the day before the actual race looks like it will be a blast and the perfect opportunity to run / walk / sight see with a camera. Although I don’t know about anyone else but I am NOT going to be moving very fast or long the day before I am racing 56 KM!
I have also made arrangements to connect with South African running legend Zola Budd while I am there. Zola has been very gracious and is looking forward to Team Grassroot Soccer coming to town. Thanks to our friends at Newton Running for connecting me with Zola. And I of course need to give another very loud shout of appreciation to Nathan Sports for their very generous support of Team GRS. You guys ROCK and we will be proud to sport our Nathan gear.
This thing is really happening…..stay tuned.
