Badgerland 24/12/& 6 Hour Run- Preview

At the time I began running in the late 70's and first became aware of ultra running, nearly all of the events were either held on the roads or for convenience on a track. Western States 100 trail run was still in it's infancy as was all ultra trail running. I remember reading an article in 1980 about the National 50 mile Championships which were held on a track. I was always intrigued with the idea of running ultras and eventually doing a 24 hour run on the track but as you probably know if you have been a regular here that my ultra running didn't start until 2002 and with the exception of a few races like the Derby 50k and The Boogie 50 miler, nearly all of them have been on trails.

  Back in 2005 I heard about an 8 hour run in Peachtree City Georgia put on by the Darkside Running Club and decided to drive down and check it out. It was held on the local high school track and was an evening race starting at 10pm until 6am. Most people seem to think it would be very boring but I had a wonderful time and enjoyed the venue and the camaraderie. It's actually pretty cool having all the competitors within sight for the entire event. I had a pacing strategy and was able to stick with it for most of the event and hit my distance goal plus 1 mile.

  Unfortunately there are not too many 24 hour track runs these days and I never got around to running one. I have done the trail 24 hour on a 1.5 mile loop at Hinson Lake a few times which is  a wonderful event but as I was making out my calender of events for the year I decided to try and find one on a track. Luckily I was able to find one that fit my schedule. In fact this is the 30th anniversary of the event put on by the Badgerland Striders in Wisconsin. It is going to be held this Saturday Sept 1st in Germantown Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee.

  I was beginning to worry about my fitness with the struggle to recover after the Boogie and a weak showing at Grandfather Mountain in July but the past 4 to 5 weeks things have gone very well with my training and I am feeling like myself again. In addition to having same very solid weeks of training, over the past 4 weeks I have completed 4 race specific workouts which I called my "stupid runs". Stupid because most would not think it's too smart to go out on an asphalt track in the middle of an August afternoon to run around in circles for hours.  I'm hoping that they turn out to be smart runs ! I did 3 of them for two hours and one of them for 3 hours practicing my run/ walk pacing strategy as well as fueling and hydration. In addition I did a nice 5 hour time on feet workout in Umstead with Ultra Angel Jenn a couple of weeks ago so I feel confident that I'm as well prepared as I can be at this time.

  In 2006 at Hinson Lake I was able to cover 103.36 miles. I'm 6 years older now, but also a lot more experienced so I am hoping to exceed that distance. I'll be happy with anything over that but I'll go ahead and put it out for all to see that my fantasy goal is 110 miles. I don't think there will be any online updates although the event is chip timed but since the event is in the confines at the HS track I may be able to use my phone for some updates on FB when I take an occasional extended walk break .

 Here is the event website.

 Wish me luck !