The Freak Wins All!

by Jim Linville

March 29, 2010

I thought it was suppose to be sunny. Yeah, isn't that always the plan. Ultra running is such a time consuming hobby that you really need to run whenever you get a chance. But still, I may end up putting the Saturday run off to until Sunday, if it is suppose to be sunny. Of course, you really can't afford to do that and still burn the candle at both ends. Some days you have to decide if you're a runner or a race director. A husband or a father. A man or a freak. The freak often wins all.

The 150 mile Crowing the Capitol adventure trek is not the craziest idea I've had. It is just the one I am currently trying to master. There are a couple of other treks that are the same distance I am planning on experiencing. This event should tell me that I can do that distance and open the door to the others. This last weekend I made 20 miles on my long run. It felt really good on the way out. I would like to be running twice that far by now. But it seems, at least for me, that half of battle of ultra distance adventure running is pain management. We solved the problem of my little toe next to the littlest toe. That was good. But the chafing,.. man,.. that's got to stop. I would hate to DNF for chafing.

I went to my favorite ultra running web site and I'm told to try a farm product called utter butter or bag balm. I did go to our local farm supply store and of course there was a girl I know there to help me. "Excuse me. Can you tell me where the utter balm is?" "You mean the bag balm? You just past it. Are you serious? What are you going to do with bag balm?"

Let's just hope it does the trick. The problem is the 10 pounds I put on every winter. You would think my body would know I'm going to be running that off. You would think that between my thighs is the last place my body would try to store 10 extra pounds of fat. But noOOoooo! "Let's put it right here where we can remember where we put it."

I never really get out of shape or in shape for that matter, it's all a matter of conditioning. I've got a picture here for you of a hill that is just four miles from my home. Going out it is a long slow hill. Not bad at all to climb. Coming back home it is tall and steep. I always think of that one song, this hill tells me "what condition my condition is in". If I can run all the way up that hill, I didn't go too far. If I have to walk up this hill, it is going to be a long four miles home.

I made a friend climbing that hill one time. She was conditioning for a trek in the Rockies. I see her most weekends. We are usually going opposite directions. "Hi Tina!" "Hi Jim" "going to rain?" "Looks like it." But sometimes we get a couple of miles to share. She has good stories.

I added two miles this week. They were miles I had not seen before on foot. The creek bottoms were pretty cool. After I got up the hill on the other side there was this sign, "dangerous hill". Don't you think they could of told me that before I climbed it?

What I learned from the Middle Of the Road: I know from the miles that I've seen that I can go as far as I can see. I know from the people I've met that I'll like the people I meet.