plans change

For the last 1.5 years pretty much every run I have done was done while keeping my 'eye on the prize' as they say. That prize was to run in The North Face Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc or UTMB as it's commonly known.

Now not so much.

Yesterday registration opened up for this event and in spite of the fact that I qualified and that I've been staring at this day on my calendar for one full year I'm not going to enter.

Some history.

Big time races like this have some pretty big time standards you need to meet just to put your name into the lottery.

ASIDE - this race accepts 2300 people and it still sells out.

Two years ago I had just completed my first trail marathon and a few months later my first 50k and so I decided, why not? I like setting goals, working toward them and the sense of accomplishment when you finally reach them. To wit I started running more. So much more that I quit racing bicycles, let my bicycle racing license expire and joined a running club. My weekends were now filled with back-to-back trail runs instead of one run and one ride, I finished a bunch more 50k races and just last summer ran my first 50 mile race and my first 100 mile race - both of which are required to enter UTMB.

As anyone who reads this blog knows, running Cascade Crest pretty much shut me down. I injured my left knee and two false starts later I am just now starting to get active again. Running? That's still a ways off.

Seeing as one of the reasons I might have hurt myself at Cascade Crest is that I ramped up my distances somewhat aggressively considering what my body can handle, I don't think it's smart to do the same thing all over again and most likely drop or finish hurt even worse than I am now.

Does this suck? Oh yeah, big time.

I seem to have put all my emotional eggs into the UTMB basket and now I need to come up with a Plan B. I'm sure I'll be able to do it, but it will take time. And for some dumb reason I feel like I'm running out of that precious resource.