"My name's footfeathers. It's been 2 mins since my last ultra thought"

[caption id="attachment_409" align="aligncenter" width="220" caption="I hope he doesn't grow this 'stache for the race. We may have to go to a men's only disco club in our ass-less leather chaps."][/caption]

Although I haven't mentioned it to anyone, even my friend, Steve, who slogged the last 20 miles with me, I'm still spark-hot mad about my performance at North Fork.  I should've finished under 8 hours easily but instead had an epic physical and mental melt down that trumps just about any of the 17 ultras I've run so far.  Getting passed by 4 people late in a race is gut ripping for me and I can't shake the thoughts and reasons why it happened.

The positive outcome is that I've turned that anger into motivation to get where I know I can be in terms of potential.  I've had long-standing, "one of these days" goals.  I know I can run under 7 hrs on a reasonable 50 mile course, I know I can run a 3:45 50k, and I know I can run a 100 miler.  I'm not going to allow doubts or excuses to enter my mind, not before events, not during, not even when the pain gets so unbearable that I never want to run again.  I guess this is my public statement (to the 3 regular readers of my blog) that I'm going to put everything into these races and the training.  I've always told people (and even believed) that I'm not competitive and don't really care about outcomes of events.  With how I've felt about the North Fork race for the last three weeks, I know I'm competitive and care.

Now I have a blog entry reference for when I pussy out in training or races.

moving on......  I'm pretty pumped about pacing TW (the cop-looking character in the above photo).  I have a gut feeling that if he runs smartly for the first 50 miles, he has a good shot at top three.  He's his own worse enemy in this race and needs to go no faster than 9 hrs (ok, 8.5 hrs) for the first 50.  If he gets there (Winfield) in decent shape, I intend to bust my ass to get him across the finish in a sharp time.

Oh, and 80 trail miles for me over the last 7 days in 4 runs (three straight days off).