Michael: The Eco Extreme

Crackers and jack cheese
Are as delicious a snack
As one could hope for.

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

There are only two local races in Volcan, one we missed while visiting the states, the other is coming up this Sunday; The Volcan Eco Extreme.

I had mixed feelings about signing up for this year’s race. Last year, it was one of my highlights of living here. Not only did it provide the rare opportunity to compete in a sport that I’ve been involved in since high school, but I also thoroughly enjoyed myself. The course was great. I felt great. I did well. I had a blast. A rare combination when it comes to racing. Typically, races are engaging and challenging, but rarely do I feel like doing a Tom Cruise couch jump about them.

Also, repeating a race as I get older becomes a stress test of my physical capabilities. I had doubts that I could run the same time as I did last year, so even if I were to manage to win my age group again, I’d know that I had lost to my slightly younger self - damned bastard! And what makes it worse is that I feel great, am injury free, and feel like I’m in a great place to race as far as conditioning goes. Maybe a little heavier than ideal, but my training session times are pretty comparable to last year.

But to my relief the course has been changed. The distance has been reduced from 22k to 16k and appears to be more of a road course than last years trail version. Actually, I prefer trails and had been gearing up that way.

Now I’ve got to re-work my kit based around wearing my only once used road racing flats. Kitting up has always been one of the more pleasurable stresses of racing for me. When I no longer care about what I’m wearing, I know it’ll be time to gently hobble away from the sport.