Getting very excited about traveling up to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia for my 5th time running the Promise Land 50K. This is one of David Horton's races and part of the Lynchburg Ultra Series and Beast Series. My 1st time was in 2003 as I began my real 1st year in ultra running and it was the toughest one I had done up to that time. It took me over 8:30 that year and I didn't think I would ever make it up that last climb. For those of you unfamiliar with the race, it is a very difficult trail race over several mountains including twice over Apple Orchard Mountain and across the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Race website
I have not done a trail ultra since my dnf at Masochist in 2008 and very little single track running since then and since I just ran Boston 4 days ago, I don't expect to run fast this year. Mainly I just want to return for the fun and beauty of the course and see a lot of ultra buddies that I have not seen in years. This is also the kickoff of my training for the Tahoe Rim 100 miler which I am doing in 12 weeks. Yep, marathon training is behind me for awhile now although I will continue to do some speedwork and tempo runs as part of my ultra training.
I'm traveling to the race with the Ultra Angel as she goes for her 2nd run here. I wasn't able to make the trip last year as it didn't fit the plan. A couple of other Raleigh area friends from the NCRC will be making there first attempts at this tough course, Mike Walsh and Charles Akers. It's going to be big fun. I hope to shoot some video this year since I'll be taking it "easy"
here is my race report from 2007
here are the pics from 2007
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