I've not been doing very well at writing about my preparations for the Dorset 100. That's not to say that I haven't been preparing for it. My word, there's a lot to do. That saying 'running is the perfect sport because you don't need anything more than a pair of trainers' must not have been referring to 100 mile events.
Back when I entered it in November last year, all I was concerned about was being well trained and fit enough to run/ walk that far. All my training has gone pretty well. As I am reminded constantly by friends and family, I do occasionally (or, fairly often) have a stinker of a run, and then complain about it for a while. But, just to clarify, I do genuinely love running, and even those bad ones over the last few months have taught me some important lessons, which I hope will be useful to me next weekend. Looking back then, since October, I've done two 50 mile events, one 40 miler, one 39 miles, one 35 miles, one 32 miles, one 30 miles, and three marathons, plus loads of miles by myself. Of those proper events, it was actually only two of the marathons that I found really awful. Oh, and that one that I DNF'd in February. Oh. I'd forgotten about that one. But, still in my reflective mood, I could explain these bad experiences. Mostly they are to do with the weather (either, too cold or too hot), which although out of my control, I can prepare for and take steps to minimize it's effect on me.
Which brings me nicely on to my next topic, of essential kit. And a heap more things to worry about, as well as the being fit enough to run that far.
My goodness, there is a lot of stuff that you need. Obviously, to be running all around the countryside for 100 miles you need to have certain things with you to keep you safe should you get into trouble. So the organisers helpfully condense all this into an 'essential kit list'. You have to have all of these things with you at all times, and you get checked at a random point in the event, and if you don't have any of them, you'll get disqualified. I'm anxious about this already. I lost my whistle (actually no, it was Andrew's whistle, but I'm not sure that he knows that, yet) on one of the aforementioned bad experiences, and it was attached to my bag with one of those metal hoop fastener things, which was still attached to my bag at the end, so I have NO idea how the whistle came off. And if it does that next weekend, that's it, disqualified! All for a whistle. Which I'm not even sure what I would use for. Which is making me even more anxious, because for it to be useful, I probably need to know Morse Code, which I don't, so that is something else to learn this week. Oh blimey. How is there only 6 days left??
In a fit of anxiety, I made a super-list. This includes not just everything that I will need on me while running, but also what I need to have in my half-way bag, and also what I need to have in my Mum and Dad's car. So now there are three lists of stuff:
Pus, there are all the other things I need to take for the week, because I can assure you that after finishing running 100 miles, I am going to be doing stuff other than running for the next few days. So that's four lists.
And then there is the list of all the things I need to get/ do before than.
So there are actually five lists. This is multi-tasking at it's extreme.
I also discovered last week that my rucksack isn't big enough to fit everything in, and so I have had to find and order a new one, which I really hope arrives in time. Plus, I've lost my watch and my seal for my bladder (my running bladder, the one that holds the water in my rucksack, not my own bladder).
I think these should go on list five?
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