[Editor’s Note: This article is part of an occasional series on the unique opportunities and challenges of growing older as a runner.]
This weekend, I shall be working the Javelina 100 Mile in my dwelling state of Arizona. This shall be my third time toeing the road at this improbable occasion. The primary time I ran Javelina again in 2007, it was a smaller, extra intimate affair than it’s now. That yr, as a 40-year-old, I competed for the win with my long-time buddy and rival Jorge Pacheco, who in the end prevailed in a successful time of 15:49. I ended up second place in 16:34. Final yr, after 17 years away from the race, I returned to Javelina and completed once more, this time in 116th place in a time of twenty-two:42.
AJW proudly shows his 2024 Javelina 100 Mile belt buckle.
I’ve spent a good bit of time during the last yr reflecting on the expertise of working the identical race 17 years aside. In fact, I can’t assist however dwell on the truth that I’ve slowed by over six hours in these intervening years. However, I take delight in the truth that I’m nonetheless going and wholesome sufficient to coach for and run 100-mile races, nonetheless sluggish my occasions could also be. Going into this yr’s race, I’m savoring the truth that working important races with large challenges isn’t solely a privilege, but additionally a present — a present that we older runners ought to by no means take with no consideration.
This yr, my race plan shall be easy: Run a bit of bit quicker than final yr. In my build-up to the race this yr, my coaching has adopted a well-recognized sample that I’ve developed over three a long time in ultrarunning: lengthy runs on the course, a three-day coaching camp, occasional tempo runs, and constant every day restoration runs. Trying again over a few a long time of coaching logs, this acquainted sample emerges for example of, “if it’s not damaged, don’t repair it.”
The writer working the nighttime part of the 2024 Javelina 100 Mile.
Again once I lived within the San Francisco Bay Space in California and educated usually on the Western States 100 course, certainly one of my common coaching companions was the late Mark Richtman. Mark was at all times a pleasure to coach with as he had a relentlessly constructive perspective and appeared to take pleasure in coaching nearly greater than racing. I recall on the finish of our final lengthy coaching run for the Western States 100 again in 2006, he stated one thing that at all times struck me:
“Properly, AJW, we’ve break up the bananas, scooped out the ice cream, added the recent fudge sauce and all of the toppings, now all that’s left to do is put the cherry on high.”
Mark Richtman on the coastal California trails he liked. Photograph courtesy of Gary Wang.
My 2025 Javelina 100 Mile, being the present that it’s, will definitely be the cherry on high of my coaching. Coming towards the top of a yr once I took on a brand new full-time job, ran my first 250-mile race, and welcomed my first granddaughter into the world, it looks as if a completely becoming present with which to finish the yr. I hope to see a few of you on the market!
Bottoms up!
AJW’s Beer of the Week
This week’s Beer of the Week comes from Marin County, California, the place Mark Richtman referred to as dwelling. Fieldwork Brewing Firm in Corte Madera, is thought for its hazy IPAs, and in my view, their finest one is Postcards from Fiji. It’s a barely bitter hazy, brewed within the old-school fashion of basic New England IPAs. It’s a terrific beer to have with barbecue or a burger, or simply by itself because the cherry on high of an ideal run.
Name for Feedback
Have you ever had an expertise of returning to a race or route after a very long time away? How did it really feel?
In what different methods do you mark the passage of time as a runner?
