One of the runners over at Daily Mile created a challenge: March Mile Madness. I decided to sign up for it, for fun, and he ended up mentioning me in his latest blog post!
Given how fast and far the other serious runners run, there’s no way I can win this unless many of them fall ill or injured, but it was sort of cool to be mentioned as one of the “Speedsters.” After all, I only started running 1 year ago and I never thought I’d be that competitive.
Click on the above links to get a description for what the event rounds will be. My thoughts on how I will do on (and hopefully progress through) each round.
Round Of 64+: Most mileage. Currently there are 87 participants. I am fairly confident that I can make it to the top 32 for mileage, but I am not going to take it lightly at all. I don’t have a race coming up, so I don’t have to worry about taking rest days off. I’ll just shoot for 45 miles, but will probably monitor everyone else’s numbers to make sure I’m above the cut.
Round of 32: Running a 5K race. I think I might do just well enough to make it onto the next round, but it will be very close – there are some real fast guys in here. I am decently fast – nothing amazing, but hopefully enough to probably get me to the next round.
Sweet 16: Thankfully I have a 30K (19-mile) race in the middle of these 4 days, so I should fare decently well if I make it this far. However, some of the guys on Daily Mile run 12-15 miles a day so this may be the part of the program where I have to bow out if I take a rest day before or after the 30K race. I will have to focus on carving out enough time to put consistent 10+ mile days during this period.
Elite 8: Running a 10K. I like the 10K distance, but at this point there are probably too many fast guys for me to compete with: Matthew L, Steve S, Andrew P, Ron W, Tor D are all faster than me and will probably move on without me.
Final 4: I probably won’t be here, but it’s fun to think about. I could only hope to make it this deep. If I do, I guarantee 20+ mile days but there are other guys who make that look like a walk in the park. I don’t see getting to the Final 4, but if I did there’s no way I’m making it to the final round.
“Halftime”: A fast half-marathon to end the event? Oy. Just the thought of running a half-marathon after such a long challenge makes me tired.
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1 response so far ↓
Sounds like you’re going into this with the right attitude: having fun is the most important part! And I do think you stand a good chance of doing quite well. Personally, I expect to be eliminated during the 5k race… even at my best I don’t have the right kind of speed, and right now I’m still getting over an injury late last year.
Anyway, good luck!