Thursday, August 18, 2011

32 miles for my 32nd Birthday

I need a goal to get my out of bed in the morning, otherwise the snooze button it too tempting. Working out for the sake of working out and being healthy turns my good intentions (say an hour run) into checking the box kind of workouts (well, I still managed 30 minutes)!

My "A" race at the beginning of 2012 is the Rocky Racoon 50 mile trail race. I have wanted to do this race for years, but have never been able to priortize it over my tri training, so 2012 is going to be the year! Since I don't have much (ok, any) trail running experience, I figured I better do a couple of 50K races before attempting the 50 miler.

There just so happens to be a different Rocky Raccoon trail race (same location as the 50 miler) on November 5, a mere 4 days after my 32nd birthday. If you have been reading my blog for a while, you may recall that Ironman Florida was my 30th birthday present to myself. So, in this spirit, I decided to run 32 miles for my 32nd bithday. The race is 31 miles, so I am going to have to either run a mile before it starts, or finish the race and add an extra mile, but either way, my Garmin will say 32 miles when I am finished!

So, what would you do? Do the extra mile as a warm up or cool down?

Oh, and so far, I have resisted the urge to sign up for IMTX again, although I still check the website on occassion. The race is still open, just in case you were wondering...

7 comments:

Unknown said...

When I ran my 50K last year, my Garmin read over 32 miles at the end. I think my travels to the aid stations, bathroom breaks, and general not in a straight line running, accounted for the extra mile, SO I would wait until the end and see if you really need that extra mile!

Matthew Smith said...

32 miles is a LONG ways! But, you rock, so I know you'll do great. If it were me, I'd run a mile before, because the finish line won't really be the finish line at the end. Either way, I think it's a cool idea. Good luck!

Patrick Mahoney said...

I'd run the extra mile before as well....

ONEHOURIRONMAN said...

You know, when you get to be 56 you start thinking yards instead of miles.... like
I think I will do 56 yards to the fridge for a beer...

Unknown said...

Love the idea! I would totally have to do the mile before. If I see the finish line and know I had to go another mile, I'd cry! ;)

Mark said...

I'm sorry, did you say 50 mile trail race?

DO I understand this correctly? You are going to run 32 miles, then run 50 miles just four days later? I must be missing something, because that seems a tad psychotic.

That is a heck of a present to yourself. You will rock it, of course!

Anne said...

@Mark - the 50 mile trail race is in February. The 50K is November 5 (4 days after my 32nd birthday), so I am going to do the 50K + 1 mile to make it a nice even 32 miles for my 32nd birthday. I plan to tackle the 50 miler in 2012!