Pine to Wilted Palm 100

Ah, taper week.  So many people dislike the taper but I sadistically enjoy it.  I've been spending true quality time with my friends in Nevada, trail running, sleeping lots, working, and basically relaxing my mind.  I'm in a good mental state for the 100 on Saturday and feel solid physically, probably in better shape in ways than when I ran San Diego in June.  Had a bit of twinge in my ankle/soleus after a progression run on Friday.  The tightness lingered for a couple days but was gone completely on my run yesterday.

I planned on going solo with no crew or pacer but a last minute offer to crew from a friend in the Bay Area came up, so I happily accepted.  Now I can toss my drop bag plan and only have to worry about getting to the start line on time.

Hal said the temperature in Ashland was 94 yesterday.  That's fine with me.  I've been doing my runs in the heat of the day at altitude and actually enjoy running in heat.  Bring it on.

I haven't really come up with a strategy and couldn't find any splits from previous participants, so I'll be running solely on feel.  My only goal, other than finishing, is to run strong to the finish.  I walked the entire last 5-7 miles (can't remember, really) of San Diego and really couldn't even muster a jog longer than a couple hundred meters.  I've got the feel for these things (100s) now, I think, and hope to even out the effort to enable a strong finish.  I don't really care who's in the race or what they plan to do; I'm simply running my own race start to finish and if that's top 3, then great.  If it's top 20, then great.