3 days before my 100km run

how I feel

things are about to get real for me 3 days from now: 100km run in the hot mountains of Puerto Vallarta. 20+ hours of pain. gonna be fun.

So I travelled for a friend’s wedding last weekend, and a cold that was given to me by my sports massagist unleashed itself last Sunday. the travel and the alcohol probably didn’t help, but so what? Life puts shit in front of you and this is what it’s about.

Running ultras is inviting pain and the harder, the better. This is what I signed up for.

So i’ve been coughing, sneezing and had bouts of fever in the last couple of days, but still looking forward to the race. Normally, my body takes less than 7 days to heal so I should be good on the starting line. Plus, I love healing myself with pain. Fighting fire with fire. I trust my body.

I did a sauna yesterday, my longest ever, 17 mins standing in a steam sauna that gets hot as shit. After coming out dizzy, I knew I was ready for the race. Saunas are the greatest way to increase your pain tolerance.

So what do I expect from this race, pain-wise? It will get hot as fuck. I will have sun climbs in which I won’t be covered by trees for 25+ mins, pure uphill. This will be painful. I expect to probably not be fully recovered on the start line, but so be it. I expect stomach aches. I expect to be running on a 5% energy tank and still putting one foot in front of the other. I expect my mind to mess up with me and tell me to quit, to stop, to check “how much km” left “Are we home yet?” kid to come out. I expect my partner Phil to outpace me and me being f’d mentally by that. I expect to be stressed by cutoff times. I expect to slip, potentially roll an ankle, etc. I expect mass-pain, and Goggins has calloused my mind for that experience in the last couple of months.

But I will calm myself up, and maintain my calm. My favourite phrase is the paternal “slow it down” that Wim Hof mentions in his breathwork. “Breatheeeee”. “Relax bud”. I love box breathing and controlling my breath during runs. Nasal breathing and stuff.

I expect bouts of low energy that are eclipsed by “ups”, the normal roller coaster of mitochondria and human systems.

A nice way to view a 100km is a “long hike” and I love hiking. I’m venturing into the unknown and will flow into the experience.

If you have words of encouragement, audio or written, I’ll take note of them, send them on my watch/phone and look at these during my race. These will be much appreciated.