Marin Ultra Challenge 50k

I signed up for my first race of the year. It’s my first ultra. I tried last year after my early season marathon. I signed up for the NUT 50k and then got a stress fracture.

I chose the Marin Ultra Challenge 50k, for a couple of reasons, well mainly one, broke startup founder reason. Races are expensive and this one was $95 dollars. I figured I could back-end it to a trip down in the Bay.

I have many goals, to-do lists and discomfort seekers for 2020, but my running goals are some of my most ambitious. This year is a whole different beast. Complete a 50k and then a 50-mile race. I am thinking The North Face 50 or Squamish 50.

I guess who cares where it happens, it’s all going to hurt.

Anyways, any running in the Marin Headlands is beautiful, and the race does seem fun. Here’s a little description, with a course map, and elevation profile from the Inside Trail page.

“The Marin Ultra Challenge, our premier Marin County long-distance trail race, delivers ample hills and sweeping descents. March 14th marks the 8th edition of this tour of some of Marin’s best trails.”

After reading a few race reviews I succinctly gathered that why yes, “it does deliver ample hills.”

But hey, whether it’s tarmac or trails, I love blowing the top off my anaerobic threshold up steep climbs and hazardously ripping descents. I am a big believer that grinding through a physical challenge is always a good way to come into yourself and build resilience.

Anyways, let’s get to my goal and the plan.

The goal — well, that’s for me.

However, I will say this is what I do when I sign up for races: I take a look at the results from that specific event in the years past and try to within reason, often without ANY good reason, figure my way into a decent result.

I am really not a good enough runner to think this way, but my faulty thinking and ambition usually lead to sanguine results or a season-ending injury.

It’s more interesting that way. And I am an all-in kind of guy.

One of my trail comrades is a literal freak. He’s from Alaska. That should tell you enough. I’m partway convinced he used to run Denali repeats as a child. Maybe even raised by a pack of wolves. But the point is he runs on a competitive, I-used-to-be-a-great-D1-runner team and has a coach and stuff. So I took his plan from the Chicago International Marathon. His goal pace time was 2:22. I know you guys are like Kipchoge did 2 hours though — not impressive! But you guys, the idea of that pace makes me sick. That’s a 5:25 mile for 26.2 miles.

I myself, on the other hand, am probably more like a 28-year-old newborn calf fresh out of the womb. I smoked cigarettes until I was 21 and then started running to manage my crippling anxiety. Needless to say, I am still figuring this whole running thing out. But when you do something enough, you start to become okay at it. At least in your personal realm.

So here’s the plan! A blend of my prior year 50k and Forest’s CIM plan.

The plan is a broad mix of long runs, long tempos, some good solid speed endurance workouts, and a lot of hills. I kept Forest’s signature workout, at my paces, but the real signature workout here is the Scott Jurek classic, the Mt. Si repeats. You’ll notice the 8 mile days peppered in. That’s from my commitment to 52-weeks of run commuting — a four-mile out-and-back in the rain to the light rail station on days I work downtown at the Pioneer Collective.

I’ll report back as I progress into the 3-month block, but if you’re interested you can follow the journey to 50 (and then 100 miles) on Strava.