Forget about the pain, this is the Comrades

Time for a Comrades geography lesson! Last night after straggling home from my abysmally painful track workout (5 miles of 800m sprints in July is always a stupid idea, FYI), I cuddled up in bed with my laptop to watch The Long Run. The movie tells the story of a grizzled, veteran running coach who was never able to complete Comrades, but pins all his hopes on a new prodigy who has the raw running talent to be the top woman at Comrades . Okay, so the acting was meh and their depiction of distance runners occasionally left something to be desired, but the movie did me give a taste of what to expect from the race course.

We are always running for the thrill of it

"You're running HOW far? At WHAT time?' Unsurprisingly this was my parents' reaction when I casually dropped that I planned on running 11 to 12 miles at the god awful hour of 7am on Sunday morning. I intended to head up to Ronald Reagan Airport then loop back to my house, a distance that my stepdad would literally have had to bribe me to BIKE with him when I was younger. While I've kept my parents abreast of all the races from the past few months, I suppose that seeing truly is believing, especially when it comes to their formerly commitmentphobe runner daughter.

Speaking of which, I finally discussed my Comrades ambitions with my parents. Obviously I have no qualms broadcasting this goal and its progress over the internet to my friends and friendly stalkers, but something about vocalizing it to my parents carries so much more weight. In many aspects of my life, I frequently delay telling the rents about major developments, be it a new apartment, the end to an ongoing break-up, or even my class schedule, preferring to wait until things are utterly finalized.

While my parents have always been incredibly supportive of anything I set my mind to, I suppose part of my reluctance stems from my fear of disappointing them if I don't go through with endeavors, coupled with a small desire to avoid fielding questions about things/people/places who's 15 seconds of my fame in my life have already passed. However, at this point I can firmly say that I am committed to running Comrades (body allowing) so it's important to loop in my family on my next big life goal. My parents' reaction to the Comrades discussion was slight skepticism (which is COMPLETELY understandable), but mainly support and encouragement for which I am very very grateful. Looking forward to many copies of Born to Run for my birthday. Always need the relevant research material!

Easy as one, two, three?

Runner's World recently posted an interesting and helpful guide to running your first ultramarathon. Calling on the expertise of several ultra veterns, the RW article offers some great tips on planning, training, nutrition, race day, and recovery. Although Greg and I may be violating one or two of their tips (picking a race close to home is for WIMPS!), by and large it sounds like we're on track. This spring and summer we'll both be working on steadily building up our training to a fall marathon, peppering our calendars with several half-marathons and shorter races. While neither of us are entirely injury free currently, we've played it pretty smart by cutting back mileage, crosstraining, and stretching like crazy. So hopefully we won't end up like this Comrades runner...

The plethora of how-to ultra guides and advice columns are definitely great, don't get me wrong, but it still doesn't diminish the fact that running an ultra is downright intimidating. A quick peek at the training plans posted on the Comrades' website offers a glimpse of what fall and next spring holds. 60K long runs on the weekend, three or more four hour runs a week - no big deal, right? Ha. I hear my social life dying a slow, painful death. I think the massive time commitment demanded by ultra training will be the most difficult aspect of the process for me, you know besides running 56 miles straight. As the old adage goes, New York City never sleeps and there's always a million new restaurants to try, neighborhoods to explore, free open bars to find, or cooking classes to take. I'll have to put some of my other adventures on the back burner in the latter half of the year with my fingers crossed that the Comrades experience will be everything I've built it up to be.

In the meanwhile, eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow I'll be running my face off!

Weekly revelation: Missed runs equal cranky Monica

Apologizes for being a total slacker at posting over the past week. A manic week at work devoured all free time and any motivation to even look at a computer at night after living in front of one at the office. Promise to inundate y'all with my word vomit at least a few times this week.

So. About that running. Forced myself to take last Monday and Tuesday off after the back-to-back races. My knee has been acting up a bit the past couple weeks so I figured it was best to give it a little rest before throwing myself back into training. 4 weeks till the 15K and given my recent times I think it's totally possible to hit a sub-8:45 pace if I stick with the training plan. Oh and don't blow out my knee. Last thing I need is a case of ITB syndrome. Unfortunately, speaking of injuries, Smithies was taking it easy last week and sat out Sunday's 4 mile race in Prospect Park as it's looking more and more like he's got a bad case of planters fasciitis, which does not bode well for his running mission. Hopefully with a little more R&R he'll be back out on the road! I don't know how he's holding up - literally two days sans running had me going bat shit psycho. More so than usual.

'Cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run

Welcome to the story of three moderately athletic individuals with very well toned beer muscles who decided to throw caution and good sense to the wind to train for the Comrades Ultramarathon, the ultimate human race.

For those unfamiliar with Comrades, it's a 56 mile (89 km) race that has taken place in South Africa annually since 1921 with the exception of those pesky WWII years, making it not only the world's largest ultramarathon but also the oldest. The event is run between Pietermaritzburg and Durban, one year uphill and the next down. These 56 miles are said to "challenge everything he holds dear, his value system, his lifestyle. They will ask nothing less than his view of the universe." Sounds like fun, right? Uh, sure.

Now contrary to popular belief, Greg, Sheryl, and I are not completely insane - there will be many, many 5ks, 10 milers, half marathons, and a few 26.2s before Comrades 2012 rolls along. Comrades is clearly not the sort of race one wakes up and decides to wing the morning of. This blog will document our trials and tribulations in not too painstaking detail over the next two years as we prepare for what is bound to be a life changing experience. And obviously, if we commit in the blogosphere to running Comrades, then we can't flake out - pride and dignity, what little we have left, are at stake!

Coming soon: 2010 race plans, training adventures, experimentations with spandex, hungover runs!, and hopefully not too much chafing.