Once upon a time…

Posted by Fitmidget on September 10, 2013 in Events, Fitness | 2 Comments

This a story about a happy ending.  Like all good happy endings,  it begins with a fairy tale. Except it wasn’t a very pretty fairy tale. It had no magic carpets, genies or fairy dust.,but it did have dirt… lots of it.. and also a little bit of special magic.

This is no ordinary magic.

It is the type of magic that lies deep within everyone but that only ‘special’ people understand enough to use. (PHATties I’m looking at every single one of you!)

It’s a determined, crunchy nut kind of magic that makes you feel like you could run 50 miles… or 80.46 kilometres.

Yes that was no typo, and with no autocorrect I did in fact just type: run 80.46 kilometres.

I know what you’re thinking…. ‘I barely like to drive that in my car let alone run it!’ Case in point that this story involves a ‘special’ kind of magic.

Magic which I’m seriously starting to doubt!

So fairytales aside… the reality is I have committed to this crazy ass 50 mile trail running event taking part in Dwellingup on the 28th of September 2013 called the Waterous Trail on Foot, or more commonly the ‘What the fuck? run’. What the fuck because that’s exactly what I’m asking myself right now in preparation for the event.

Initially I thought I was ready to take on the 30km increase and jump from my last ultra up to 80km and in doing so even be preparing for the eventual jump up to 100km. But now, far from the fairytale I thought it would be, week 8 of my training has me abandoning the 100km dream and more realistically thinking that 50km is probably more suitable as my distance.

My lovely running coach did warn me about the time needed to dedicate to such an adventure: up to 12 hours of training and running on your feet in one week, and I being full of self confidence and yearning for a new challenge at the time saw me brush it aside thinking I can take on the world. Little did I realise the respect that 80km truly deserves.

Currently, I’m less than self confident, I’m mentally beaten, my body is fatigued, my runs feel tedious and I just cant catch a break with my immune system being susceptible to any little sniffle, sickness, or cough going. However, I continue to remind myself to trust in my coaches, ignore the inner whinge, and just get through this next week before taper.

It has also therefore been inevitable that my social life and work life have been affected. My concentration span is that of a gnat, I have no energy for socialising and most of my time is spent in the kitchen, calorie counting and weighing in.

It always bothers me when fitness enthusiasts or runners says that something is easy. Because the truth is it is not easy for everyone. And I’m not going to lie, for anyone else out there wanting to make the jump, do not take it lightly 80km running is as long as it sounds, and even more so if you want to do it adequately. And I’m not even talking about doing it well, I’m just simply talking about finishing.

Nevertheless one can remain optimistic! I am holding onto my fairytale hope for the happy ending. One of crossing the finish line in two weeks time feeling empowered and happy that I was committed to the training and well prepared enough to make it to the end…..Besides…. if all else fails two of my phattie running friends have agreed to help drag my body across the finish line to get me a finishing time.

So I’ll leave you with the pearler below, to share with you the moral of the story behind my ‘What The Fuck’ 80.46km fairytale.