Since I started running in 2019 I’ve entered several races, which I have used as a means of maintaining motivation and having something to work towards, but the truth is that I don’t really enjoy races. Road races, in particular, are not really enjoyable; I’ve found that I want to run at a certain pace to achieve a personal best time, but inevitably get held up in the crowd and end up disappointed with my result. In contrast, when I’ve run trail races (where I’m generally less bothered about a target time) I’ve found them more enjoyable, but still not to a great extent, as I’m not really a people person and prefer to do my own thing.
So for the last couple of years I’ve had the desire to create challenges for myself outside of races, and the one I’ve really been eyeing is an ultramarathon distance run (anything over marathon distance is considered an ultramarathon), so I’ve set myself the target of running a 50 km run before my 50th birthday. That gives me a little over two years to reach the target, though I’m hoping I can do it in one, with an extra year buffer in case I need it. I’m calling this challenge “Fifty by Fifty”, and will tag posts here with the 50×50 tag.
I’ve got a couple of ideas for routes, but I haven’t decided on one for certain yet, and I also have yet to decide on the best training approach; I have a few books on the subject and I’m weighing up which to use as a guide. The main contenders currently are Krissy Moehl’s “Running Your First Ultra”, and Jason Koop’s “Training Essentials for Ultrarunning”. I’ll write more once I’ve decided, and will then document my progress here.