2024 WRA HISTORY.
MONOLOUGE.
Two years ago we made a first attempt of this transcontinental run. We had planned a single crew the entire duration of the event (Morgan, Jason and one other). Mere days before the start, we lost our teammate. That led to a series of hail mary passes that just couldn't close at such a late hour despite a handful of family and friends jumping through hoops to support an adapted attempt. Sometimes the right decision is the hardest one to make. Crewing such an endeavor is complex, and taxing. Could we have finished? Sure. But such an aggressive time goal required I make the tough decision to pause after the adapted first day. The learnings were immense but necessary. No one is responsible for the fallout but me. Despite rushing back to work, that was just a way to distract from the emotional pain of such a visible failure with many friends and family watching. It took me months to fully recover mentally and regain the confidence needed for another attempt.
FAIL FORWARD.
I had two choices: give up or give it another go. One of my colleagues at work shared a phrase that loosely translates from Chinese to mean: "there is nothing like a first punch to get you in the mood to fight." Truer words have never been spoken. I am a person of my word and I said I was going to do this. I am not willing to give up which means I must be willing to do the work to address all of the challenges from 2024. The past two years have been a tremendous reset and we are approaching this in a (partially) different way, keeping the good and addressing the areas of opportunity. We have a dedicated, trained and capable crew who's abilities are well suited to their portion and role throughout the journey. We have a plan for crew gaps or any necessary flexibility. I then looked for the small things I could do differently to only further guarantee success, what could have gone wrong, and I can confidently say I've never been calmer before an event. Will this be easy? Absolutely not but I am excited to put them all into action and share that journey with you.
FAIL FORWARD is a mantra I subconsciously began implementing after adult racing became more visible and injuries mounted.
After years of running 5Ks I decided to do a marathon. I created my own training plan and targeted Olympic Trials on my first attempt; I missed by ~2 minutes due to severe dehydration and intussusception requiring hospitalization. Lesson learned.
After reconstructive foot surgery and cycling throughout time in a cast, I decided to attempt a full Ironman targeting 12 hours with just 5 weeks of training; I finished slightly over target. Cycling is not my thing and pacing is critical; lesson learned.
Not sure what to do next, an old friend happened to be in town for a 100 miler and needed a pacer. I did my first unofficial 50 miles that day. Easier than I expected and good lesson learned.
The logical next step was a 100 miler where I learned hard lessons in electrolytes, clumsiness and stomach/gut training for ultras. Noted but totally doable.
In parallel, as I continued to age I realized (or finally acknowledged) it wasn't 'cool' to sleep as little as possible as if it were a badge of honor. Sleep was more vital to performance than I had acknowledged to my physical well being day to day. I stopped drinking coffee and forced myself to get adequate sleep. Lesson learned.
Lastly, upon reflection, while my goals were aggressive, I was only missing them by small amounts. Aim small, miss small ... maybe I needed to set more aggressive goals.
LESSONS: Hydration. Just running (i.e. no cycling). Pacing. Electrolytes. Stick to roads to mitigate clumsy feet. Gut training. Sleep. Stretch the targets. Vitality of crew. Good lessons to learn.
Where could I possibly prove to myself that all of these lessons learned have been for a purpose?
Welcome to my masterpiece of taking decades of painful lessons, coupling them with innate character traits of persistence, stubbornness, and grit to prove to myself there is a purpose for all that self created hell.
The women's world record is 47 days, 12 hours and 35 minutes.
The men's record is 42 days, 6 hours and 30 minutes.
2,862 miles at 70 miles a day = 40.9 days. Seems aggressive enough.
Never give up. Never give in. Find a way.