After much deliberation and discussion with my wife, I recently signed up for my next 100 miler: Rocky Raccoon in February in Texas.
Although I thoroughly enjoyed myself at the Resurrection Pass 100 earlier this summer, since then I’ve been curious what it would be like to run a more supported 100 miler, where I don’t have to carry a bunch of gear, and there are regular aid stations. Rocky Raccoon fits that bill perfectly: the course is five 20 mile loops, and there’s never more than 6 miles between aid stations. It’s also a very flat course, with only around 5000′ of elevation gain over 100 miles, which should help with a fast finishing time. Considering that I finished Resurrection Pass in 25:42, I feel like going sub-24 hours at Rocky Raccoon is a very reasonable goal.
Probably the hardest part about doing this race is going to be keeping up my training intensity going into the winter months. We still don’t have any snow at this point, but I’m sure that won’t last much longer. As the snow falls and temperatures begin to drop, it’s going to get harder and harder to get outside for those long runs.
At times like that, I’ll just remind myself of this:
Sub-24 hour finisher buckle