Ready for the Miwok 100k!

And here I am. One day away from the Miwok 100k. I'm pretty excited. The race boasts an incredible field of runners, just finishing in the top 30 would be quite a stretch for me. Ultra Running magazine ranked it as No.4 in the list of most competitive fields for the Men and No.3 for the women for 2008. I'm looking forward to seeing and running with everyone, from the front to the back of the pack. The forecast for tomorrow calls for cool temps but with a good possibility for rain. It's here now, the rain, the worst of it is supposed to hit tonight and tomorrow night with scattered showers in between. I'm good with the cool temps, not psyched with the rain. Oh I love running in the rain but I'm going after my PR and anything that might make that harder, delay me, is not welcome. Besides rain makes it hard for volunteers and spectators and dampens the post race celebrations. But whatever, we are all terrain, all types of weather kind of runners. What a difference two weeks made in the weather. Rain in May, I guess that's happened before.

The last time I participated in this race was back in 2006, back then there was no lottery to get in and you could still sign-up in February. It certainly has grown in stature in the short 3 years I've been away from the event. After two bittersweet races in 04 and 05 I came into the 06 race well trained and uber prepared. I used Olga's splits for an 11 hour finish and had Stephen Goldmann as my pacer while our other good friend, Jason Arth, paced Olga. When I crossed the line at 10:47, a PR by about an hour, I felt on top of the world. I did my best, surprised myself and had the greatest company. At the finish line while Stephen and I were admiring the cute, tough ultra gals and female pacers I thought to myself, "This will do, this is perfect and I want to savor this for awhile. Time to do something else."

Well it has been awhile. The Wildflower Triathlons is the same weekend and that's where I've been the last two years. While I'll miss the hard tri-racing on Saturday, the boisterous company of about 100 club members not to mention the thousands of other athletes also camping and racing, the post-race cold beers and desserts Saturday night by the campfire, and the cheering and spectating on Sunday, there's no place I'd rather be this Saturday morning - shivering and anxious in the company of a much smaller group of athletes, ready to start the 2009 Miwok 100k!

Feeling high and on top of the world with Jason, Olga and Stephen. Miwok 2006.