Canyon, Texas...

Well, here we are. Canyon, Texas. The night before my first 50k. I'm excited. I know, that's weird, right?

We flew out of Austin mid-morning, had a short connection at DFW, and arrived in Amarillo around 1pm. We had a quick lunch there before the short drive to Canyon where we are staying. Since we had a couple of hours to spare this afternoon, I convinced K to go out to Palo Duro State Park so that we could check out the venue for tomorrow's event. It helps to be able to visualize the location and terrain. The weather was great, and I hope that it holds for tomorrow - low will be in the 40's when we start and rising up to the 70's by the time I finish. K, of course, will be done while it's still pretty cool.
Packet pick-up was held at WTAMU close to our hotel in conjunction with a (free) pasta dinner and the pre-race information meeting. There were lots of friendly faces from Austin, so that is comforting. Joe is of course a calming presence as well. This year's race is marked with sadness for many locals and returning trail runners as the race organizer, (Big) Red Spicer, died from cancer a few months ago. Everyone speaks of him quite fondly.So, now it's time to get my gear ready for tomorrow then try to get a good night's sleep. It will be an early am wake-up call as we are shooting to carpool from the hotel at 5:15. The 50k and 50 milers start at 7am, while 20kers start at 7:30am. Sunrise is around 8 here, so I'll have to start with my headlamp. The 50k course consists of a 6-mile loop followed by 2 12.5 mile loops. K will make just one 12.5 mile loop. The start is apparently single-track and I anticipate that it will be pretty slow to start since it will be dark and we'll all be bunched up until the 50k and 50 mile course splits off around 3 miles in. I won't see K until I'm almost 19 miles in getting ready to head back out for my final loop. My goal for tomorrow is obviously to finish and, more importantly, to have fun. Joe starts our workouts by telling us to "Go play." I love that. And, I want to enjoy the experience tomorrow. The canyon is beautiful. I will obviously have a lot of time to be in my head tomorrow - that can easily turn bad if the negative self-talk starts in. But, it can also be a wonderful time to reflect and enjoy the solitude. My race plan is to start slow and keep it slow until the final loop - if I have it to give, then I'll pick up the pace, but if not, then I'll just cruise in. My "A" goal is 6-7 hours, my "B" goal is 7-8 hours, and my "C" goal is just to finish! Regardless of the time, I will be happy with it because I pushed myself and did something that I had never even considered before (after each marathon that I have ran I could not have imagined taking another step and tomorrow I will run 5 more miles, on trails no less!). I'm not going to stress about the time - I will take my time to refuel at the aid stations, potentially change clothes, use the bathroom, etc. because it is necessary to get through the distance.