Use the Ultra Code: Just get to the next checkpoint

One of the first things you learn when you run ultra marathons is that thinking of the whole race quickly becomes overwhelming. So the trick is (and I figured this one out all on my own pretty early in my ultra running career) to just think about how far it is to the next checkpoint and aim for that. Of course, if things are going bad, you are just aiming to get to the next tree! Once there, you reset the goal to the next checkpoint/marker and off you go again.

Photo by Chris O'Brien, 3 Marathons in 3 Days, July 2012

With the advent of parkrun, many runners these days count their distances as 'just another parkrun'. In 2016 I had a good chuckle imagining the shirt I wanted to get made up for the UTA100 with the slogan 'I did 20 parkruns in one day'. Maybe I'll get organised and get one for CWU that will read 'I did 80 parkruns in 8 days'. That sound do-able, right?

I'm still trying to get my head around the training. Just can't find any good stuff out there (for FREE) to help me. So I'm figuring it out on my own. Off to Tasmania in January to try out my gear and run on some rougher terrain. March will be my biggest training month, but I may not be able to sort out time off work, so I have to try and fit all the running in around that. Not too bad, as my workday is from 8.30am to 2.30pm. I'll post my training program in the near future. I've got something, but it's time to adjust it a bit based on some of the reading I've been doing.

Booked a couple of nights on the Thorsborne Trail on Hinchinbrook Island to run there on Saturday 24 March and Sunday 25 March. I would love to do the Motatapu Ultra Marathon (51km) in New Zealand on 10 March, but I have to first beg for time off work, so that may not be possible. I'm in for the Canberra Ultra (50km) on 15 April. I ran it this year and really enjoyed it - mostly because every other runner was there in training for Comrades and the roads are closed for you to race. But in 2018 the Canberra Ultra is a bit close to the CWU which starts on 20 May, and being on the road is not the best terrain for what I'm doing.