I grew up in Winnipeg. It is very flat there. I remember going on a trip to Milwaukee for a convention and being fascinated by a slope in a downtown street. It just seemed so unreal. Running in Winnipeg was always on a flat surface. When I did my first marathon there, the only hill was an overpass. I wonder if the land of flatness has anything to do with my love of topography?
Now I live in Edmonton where the downtown angles are much steeper than anything in Milwaukee. And they have been excellent training for the ultras I have signed up for.
I’ve been worried about my next one, the 160km Lost Souls in Lethbridge. I know next to nothing about it. Is it harder than the Death Race? Well that has changed. We had a meeting with someone who has run it. I’m now a lot less nervous. It is still going to be hard, but knowing is half the battle.
We’ll be running in the Lethbridge river valley, which is twice as deep as Edmonton’s. Each 53.3km loop I need to do three times should take ten hours to complete. I have 35 hours, which gives me a five hour safety margin. I don’t need to carry too much water or equipment, as the support they have there is fantastic. (He mentioned that smoked salmon was available at one time.) It may be very hot though.
The confidence is nice.
We’re trying to figure out what we are going to do on Sunday for training. We could run 40km, or we could go on a really long hike. I overheard on the Death Race that hikers do better than runners, so a hike might be preferable than just another long run. We’re at a late enough stage that we can’t do much more to get ready.
We also seem to be turning into a gang. Mike got a BMW and has been raving about the German engineering. Now Robert is thinking of getting one. Apparently I need to get one as well, and then we can all wear our Death Race jackets. Maybe go racing in the flood control channel.