Looking Forward: Training For My First Ultra Marathon

The road to self-improvement is never ending, and I am excited to have found my next stop along the way. In January of next year I will be taking on the San Diego 50 – my first attempt at an ultra marathon.

The thought of running anything above 26.2 has intrigued me since the moment I crossed the finish line at the Chicago Marathon last year. I instantly said to myself, “Greg, you did it! What else are you capable of? I think that’s what excites me the most about this new goal. Finding out what I really am capable of; moving towards realizing my full potential.

To say that I’m attempting to reach what I would call my ‘full potential’ through running sounded foolish to me initially, but, the more I think about it, it’s absolutely perfect.

I simply love running. It has been nothing short of a lifesaver for me. When I look at where I was just several years ago – and where I am today – the difference between the two is night and day. While I won’t say running is solely responsible for changing the direction of my life – I will say it acted as the guiding light.

Currently, I’m in my fifth week of training. I’m carefully building up my weekly mileage and learning to hit back-to-back long runs on the weekends. I am trying to do 2-3 trail runs a week, varying in distance and intensity from 7-22 miles. I’m also hitting a few road runs and doing a day or two of cross training to mix it up. I’m feeling good – but tired. I suppose I had better get used to that!

It’s been exciting to start researching things like hydration packs, trail shoes, race nutrition and more. I’ve been spending countless hours pouring over blogs, websites, books, race recaps and more to learn more about the sport. To say that C has been supportive of this new-found love affair would be a huge understatement.

She knew I had really been wrestling with setting my next ‘big’ goal and kept pushing me to commit. In fact, she sat right on this couch when I registered after completing week four of training. Although we are only five weeks into it, she has been so supportive, in so many ways, and I couldn’t be more thankful. Thanks, C.

I’m excited to continue down this road and get deeper into training – but it’s new to me. I eagerly welcome any and ALL advice, tips, pointers, blogs, places to run (I’m in San Diego), or people to run with.

What do I expect to learn through this? I’m not exactly sure. Maybe I’ll run just this one and be satisfied – or maybe it will start an entirely new chapter in my life. All I know is I’m moving forward, in so many different ways.

As I said earlier, the road to self-improvement is never ending and to move farther down it all you need to do is continuously ask yourself that one simple question: “What am I really capable of?”

Ready. Set. Go!

-G