the Way of the Turtle

The Distance Bug Gets a Nibble...
Monday, September 1, 2008

For about three weeks now I've been finding myself contemplating running a longer distance race this fall... despite my miserable performances at every long distance event I've done this season.

Looking at the possibilities, the best prospects are the Niagara Falls International Marathon, the Stone Cat Trail Marathon, and the Mendon Trail Runs 50k. Each has its attractions and drawbacks. Niagara Falls runs from Buffalo to Niagara Falls, which is a pretty cool concept, but is fairly expensive and involves a pre-race trip to Niagara Falls to complete registration and take cae of all the passport/border crossing details. Stone Cat sounds like a moderate-difficulty trail run, but is also moderately expensive and involves an overnight trip to eastern MA and a god-awful early morning start (6:15 AM!) Mendon is the least expensive and the easiest to manage logistically - but it's 5 loops, a 50k and very hilly.

Of course, I may find that my next few races (all 13-15 miles) are miserable and that will answer the question as to whether or not I could be ready for a late-October/early November marathon...

Maybe someday I will figure out what the attraction of longer distances is... it can't be the training, which is time-consuming, hurts like crazy, and is a general pain in the backside!

JMH