I headed down to the Pine Creek Rail Trail for my second training run on the site of the upcoming Pine Creek challenge 100 mile event in September. The plan was to start in Blackwell, where the end of the out and back section of the 100 mile distance is, and run back towards the start finish line area. The goal for this run was 20 miles at a little faster overall pace than I am planning for the race itself. I would be running 1 mile then walk for 1 minute and repeat that every mile.

This was my second 20 mile run of the week. Something I had never done before. This was also only my second 20 mile run of the year that was not a race which were the only two other 20+ mile runs this year. This also ended up being the most miles I have run in a week all year. Maybe not the most traditional way to be training for a 100 mile race with less than a month to go. I was a little nervous it would go badly, but it went fine. And now that I am feeling much more confident and healthy I can start to taper a bit and reduce mileage. I think I will add in some biking. Then I plan to essentially rest or at least not run the entire week before race day.

Last practice run I ran in my Altra’s and didn’t really like how that felt so on this run I wanted to try out road shoes since the trail is pretty firm. I ran in my Saucony Kinvara 9’s. The run went pretty good as 20 mile long runs go. No major issues. A little soreness in the areas where it is to be expected. A little soreness in my hip which is to be expected at this point. But overall I was pretty happy with the run. The road shoes felt much better.

I won’t be running the race in my Kinvara 9’s though because they have over 200 mile son them and I cannot find anymore in my size at this point. I did manage to find a pair of road shoes with a similar profile to the Kinvara’s but with a little more cushion and a little wider toe box tha tI will try out for my next long run. Then hopefully I will have my footwear for the race solved.

I have found that 3.5 hours is apparently how long it takes me to drink 2 litters of water while out for a run. So that will help in planning for what I need to do on race day to manage my hydration. I have really started to think more in depth about how I am going to manage everything on race day and that makes me a bit more nervous. It’s funny because the running itself doesn’t really bother me as much. I know it is going to be hard and take a lot of toughness to finish, but planning for all the other aspects I need to have in place to make it happen makes me a little rattled. Luckily I have a great crew that will be out there to support me.

The weather was perfect for this run. It was so nice and the scenery was beautiful. I am really excited to see the whole course on race day with some early fall colors and then run on it at night.

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