(Editor’s Be aware: This text is a part of an occasional sequence on the distinctive alternatives and challenges of rising older as a runner.)
This weekend, I will likely be working the Javelina 100 Mile in my house state of Arizona. This will likely be my third time toeing the road at this improbable occasion. The primary time I ran Javelina again in 2007, it was a smaller, extra intimate affair than it’s now. That 12 months, as a 40-year-old, I competed for the win with my long-time good friend and rival Jorge Pachecowho finally prevailed in a successful time of 15:49. I ended up second place in 16:34. Final 12 months, after 17 years away from the race, I returned to Javelina and completed once more, this time in 116th place in a time of twenty-two:42.
AJW proudly shows his 2024 Javelina 100 Mile belt buckle.
I’ve spent a good bit of time over the past 12 months reflecting on the expertise of working the identical race 17 years aside. After all, I can’t assist however dwell on the truth that I’ve slowed by over six hours in these intervening years. Alternatively, I take satisfaction in the truth that I’m nonetheless going and wholesome sufficient to coach for and run 100-mile races, nevertheless sluggish my instances could also be. Going into this 12 months’s race, I’m savoring the truth that working vital races with large challenges is just not solely a privilege, but in addition a present — a present that we older runners ought to by no means take with no consideration.
This 12 months, my race plan will likely be easy: Run a bit of bit sooner than final 12 months. In my build-up to the race this 12 months, my coaching has adopted a well-known sample that I’ve developed over three many years in ultrarunning: lengthy runs on the course, a three-day coaching camp, occasional tempo runs, and constant each day restoration runs. Wanting again over a few many years of coaching logs, this acquainted sample emerges for example of, “if it’s not damaged, don’t repair it.”
The creator working the nighttime part of the 2024 Javelina 100 Mile.
Again after I lived within the San Francisco Bay Space in California and skilled typically on the Western States 100 course, one among my common coaching companions was the late Mark Richtman. Mark was at all times a pleasure to coach with as he had a relentlessly constructive perspective and appeared to take pleasure in coaching nearly greater than racing. I recall on the finish of our final lengthy coaching run for the Western States 100 again in 2006, he mentioned one thing that at all times struck me:
“Nicely, AJW, we’ve cut up the bananas, scooped out the ice cream, added the recent fudge sauce and all of the toppings, now all that’s left to do is put the cherry on prime.”
Mark Richtman on the coastal California trails he liked. Picture courtesy of Gary Wang.
My 2025 Javelina 100 Mile, being the reward that it’s, will definitely be the cherry on prime of my coaching. Coming towards the tip of a 12 months after I took on a brand new full-time job, ran my first 250-mile race, and welcomed my first granddaughter into the world, it looks as if a completely becoming reward with which to finish the 12 months. I hope to see a few of you on the market!
Bottoms up!
AJW’s Beer of the Week
This week’s Beer of the Week comes from Marin County, California, the place Mark Richtman referred to as house. Fieldwork Brewing Firm in Corte Madera, is thought for its hazy IPAs, and for my part, their greatest one is Postcards from Fiji. It’s a barely bitter hazy, brewed within the old-school type of basic New England IPAs. It’s a fantastic beer to have with barbecue or a burger, or simply by itself because the cherry on prime of an ideal run.
Name for Feedback
- Have you ever had an expertise of returning to a race or route after a very long time away? How did it really feel?
- In what different methods do you mark the passage of time as a runner?
