Fallsburg Marathon

This Saturday, I will be running the Fallsburg Marathon in Lowell, MI. This marathon consists of approximately 50% roads (asphalt and gravel) and 50% trails with several good hills. It should be a very good training run for Hallucination 100 Sept. 26th. To get all my planned mileage in this week, I will have to do another run on Saturday. As of right now, I am leaning towards a shorter run before the race on Saturday. That will give me a little more time on the trails in the dark. I am confident about my night running at this point, but the extra practice can't hurt.

Along with the trail marathon, I am also planning on running the actual Hallucination 13 mile loop tomorrow. My plan is to drive to Pinckney (MI) early, getting there around 4a.m. This will give me a chance to run the loop in the dark. If I can maintain a decent pace, I would like to do two additional laps. At this point, a 39 mile run is significantly longer than my other long runs, but I should be prepared for it. Based on the advice of some more experienced ultra runners, I have started cutting my crosstraining back a bit. I am also consolidating my weekly runs to make fewer runs, but also longer runs. It will allow greater stressing of my body along with more recovery time. This week's mileage should be in the ballpark of 75-85 miles. This should be my highest total of this training cycle.