WM100 was amazing this year. Scenery was beautiful, volunteers were amazing, and the competition was unbelievable. Joe Grant, a pro ultra athlete, took the running division with a time of 17 hours!
I knew from the beginning it would be foolish to try to keep pace with Joe, like calling out LeBron James for a one on one on the court. Instead I thought what an awesome opportunity to push myself. Running the same course can allow me some mental propulsion forward. Also the thought of my friends some of the toughest Alaskan endurance athletes on my tail like Dan Lesh, Laura McDonough, and John Nagle mentality pushed me. I never thought I could do a winter 100 under 24 hours none the less under 23 hours. I think once we've been shown it can be done our mind lets the body preform what was thought impossible.
Roger Banister the runner who broke the four minute mile, the longest standing record in running found his record of 3:59 the quickest to repetitively be broken.
There was a lot of contributing factors towards finishing the WM. Friends, weather conditions, and doing WM a second time made the course go by quicker. The hours passed by like minutes, landmarks were predictable, and just made it more enjoyable.
Looking through my bar and gu wrappers after the race, I noticed I consumed a lot less food then I normally would eat which was weird. I did eat two meals that the race supplied but still it didnt added up calories burned versus consumed. I went back and forth with stuff called HEED (combination of carbs and electrolyte mixture added with water) and plain water at 32oz between check points (20 miles).
Two down and two to go. With two winter one hunderds down I'm relieved spring and summer racing is around the corner. Even though my body agrees better with winter running because of the cooler temperatures, I feel ready to train for the next two hundreds in June and August. Without lossing my endurance base I plan on training for speed and core strength due to the faster speeds needed in the summer hundreds.
Big thank you to my sponsor Tongass Substance Screening. It is great to have such a supportive sponsor in the community of Southeast. To my readers I am half way there. The Alaska Slam has proven to be an awesome challenge. I am so thankful to share with you. Thank You!
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