pre-UTMB race thoughts

It's 8AM here and I am sitting and having coffee out on the balcony of our unit while looking at Mont Blanc. Simon and I have less than 10 hours (18:30 local time) before the start of UTMB (12:30AM in Philippines). We both had a good night's rest. I'm suprised I was able to sleep soundly. Let's see if I can take a nap later.

Last night, I asked veteran ultrarunner Rick Gaston for advise on clothing, etc. vis-a-vis nasty weather for Friday (weather forecast is rain with thunderstorm, gusty wind of 20-60kph, hail or snow from 2,000m asl and freezing temp of -3C. I think the wind is the killer. -3C plus that wind, temp will be much lower. We hurdle all these and we'll be fine for the rest of the race.

The goal for this race is obviously to finish within the cut-off time of 46 hours (longer than the usual of 30 or so hours). Breaking my time at GNW100 is definitely a bonus but I'll take it one step at a time. UTMB presents a different set of challenges like weather, terrain, elevation, etc. Like for instance, I ran several times here and particularly took note of the terrain. It's rocky and made a mental note to avoid, among others, ankle sprain. I have always believed that a smart ultrarunner focuses on things he can control and not on those he cannot like weather, terrain, etc. It only makes sense.

My training did not go well as I wished it should. I trained solidly for GNW100 than for UTMB. the only difference is that UTMB has more almost daily hilly terrain runs because of the place in Clark called Donggwang. Simon, on the other hand, allotted 1 year for this race. Wow. So I would not be suprised If he finished ahead of me :) I remember Peter advising me that there should be "mountains" in your legs when running UTMB. True. It is his unique way of saying "specificity of training". Yeah, I agree. Jael was kind enough to send a SMS this morning to wish us luck and others via FB like Uncle Willy, Beth, JJ, BR, Jonel, Vener, Josaw, Jomar, Ricky,  Boss Red, Andrew, Retzel, Cesar, Rey J. Paolo, Yasmin, Jerry K. my siblings, family, cousins (Rhommel, Rvey), Rodel, members of Clark Roadrunners, Ed, Saturnino and others. Thanks guys. 

So let us see later how things will go. Just preparing for this race, time, costs and all, and stepping behind the start line are worthy of ultra runner's dream.   

It is 10:20AM here and we have to go to supermarket and to buy and cook our lunch. Better cook and eat our own food. Safer and cheaper that way. Next race is Western Sates 100 in US and if I am not lucky in lottery, there is always Spartathlon in Greece.

Cheers folks!