Monday, January 19, 2015

Never Summer 100K




After the inaugural Faye 50K fun run, my name miraculously showed up on the Never Summer 100K entrants list. During our post-50K dinner, Faye showed me the entrants list on her smartphone and I thought, “Wow, there’s another guy named Wayne Kodama running the race.” After a few moments, the light bulb turned on. I was entered to run the Never Summer 100K….Faye signed me up!

Fast-forward a couple of weeks and Faye and I were driving to Badger Pass in Yosemite National Park to do some cross-country skiing. It was more like cross-country, crash-test dummy testing, but that’s a story for another day. Anyway, since getting entered into the NS 100K, I had a chance to review the course information in more detail and it consists of 64 miles, 13,000 feet of elevation gain, and an average elevation of 10,220 feet. So, on the drive to Yosemite, we were discussing the 100K and I asked Faye a poignant question, “Would you recommend the Never Summer 100K as one’s first ultra?” Her response answered the question for which I already knew the answer.

She replied, “Hahahaha….”

Running scared is good. It keeps the bowels moving and helps one maintain focus, motivation, and dedication. I put together a training plan, which increases my mileage from 40 miles per week to 50 miles per week. My objective is to get to the starting line without injury and somehow finish the race. I do not have a time-related goal; I only want to finish the race before the 24 hour cutoff. Part of the training plan includes another 50K training run and a 50 mile, self-supported, “fun run” across Zion National Park. The trans-Zion run will be in late-April or early-May and should give me a gauge of my level of fitness. If all goes to plan, I will survive the 50M Zion run and will then focus on preparing for the NS 100K in July.

Here are a few photos from my run on the Pleasanton Ridge this past weekend. My left Achilles was a little tender, so I started at the Golden Eagle trail head (which cuts off a fair amount of vertical) and ran an easy 13 miles. It was foggy, so I carried my camera to capture the interesting foggy landscape. Heavy fog rolled in during the run, so the latter half of the run consisted of photography, with a bit of running mixed in.









1 comment:

  1. I believe part of my answer to that question also included the words, "#@&% no," followed by hysterical laughter.

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