This year’s Superior Trail 100 had to be better than the last.

I trained harder and longer.

I planned to run seriously and pay close attention to what I was doing.

Is it possible to have a perfect race?

Thirty five years ago, at the outset of my career as an engineer working in quality assurance and continuous improvement, I had to decide where I stood on the field’s one driving, hotly-debated question:

Is zero defects achievable?

In 2001 at Leadville 100, when I arrived at the busy, 50-mile Winfield turnaround, people rushing everywhere, a volunteer looked me in the eye and said curtly, “You have 15 minutes on cutoff.”

I’d never been close to cutoff before. Never even had to think about it.

And I was this close? How??

“I’m doing a 100 this weekend with no pacers and have been excited about the challenge but am now getting nervous, specifically about the nighttime hours when my mood will shift - any tips?”

Pacers do a lot, starting with the obvious - setting pace. They monitor your pace compared to your goal or cutoff and let you know if you need to speed up.

And if they’re magic, they keep you going…fast enough.

You don’t have it harder because you’re not a natural athlete.

You have it harder because you think you’re not a natural athlete.

Harder, because this thinking limits you.

I’ve heard a lot lately about people who are trying to run 100 100-mile races.

That’s great if it pulls you but that’s not what I’m hearing, so I’m sharing my own journey to clear up the most common misconception.

I copied my first ultra goal from Doug McKeever while running with him in my first 100 - run all 33 100s that existed at the time.

The long-term success and joy you get in ultrarunning depends on the game you’re playing.

Two specific games came up in client sessions this week.

The first and most popular is, “Make the race turn out the way it’s supposed to.”

When you start running ultras, or move up to a new distance, it’s easy to believe everyone knows more than you.

So the safest strategy seems like copying what everyone else is doing.

Same navigation, same time in aid stations, and most importantly, the same pace.

We dread the things we dread about races because we don’t think we’ll be able to recover and finish.

But there’s a fast, reliable way to solve most problems that come up in a race, like falling, getting lost, hitting a low, stomach problems, and losing time on cutoff.

It’s easy to learn - three simple steps to get you moving in the right direction.

Want to be a good ultrarunner?

You’ll have to un-believe three limiting myths.

Limiting because they continually point out you’re not a good ultrarunner and you don’t belong with them.

Take full, 100% responsibility for your race.

That’s it.

I see so many runners avoid this once they have crew.

Coming back from injury is a golden opportunity to build a stronger relationship with your teammate for life - your body.

A friend who was down almost six weeks with an injury, told me she needed to get her mind back to a race mentality.

“How do you do that without letting the fear creep in and tell you otherwise?”

A friend recently shared this classic blog post Facebook and I thought it would be useful to share it with everyone.

It’s all still true!

Experienced or first-timer, if running a 100-mile race is on your radar, you might find these helpful…

Scroll through social media and you're quickly confronted with all the posts and photos of races people are running.

They all look so amazing…and you’re missing out.

Everyone else is running the races, traveling to the places, and doing the things you want to do - except you.

This week, an experienced ultrarunner in my Facebook group said something I’ve heard but never said.

“I’ve lost my Why - how do I get it back?”

I hear this so often that I decided to share what I told her.

Ultrarunners consistently overthink their training.

While there are all kinds of rules, beliefs, assumptions, and decisions they made along the way and never re-think.

Those things need attention too because you might have outgrown them.

I talked with a talented runner once who was tortured by the pressure of living up to his potential.

He felt that if winning, running a fast time or setting a record was within his grasp, he should.

So he felt compelled to push everything, even as it became increasingly obvious that wasn’t sustainable.

The way to become fearless may not be what you think.

You don’t do it by forcing yourself to gut out the race.

You don’t do it by trying harder not to be afraid of the race

Did you know you can become more resilient?

You’re not born with it?

When people ask me how I’ve run 134 100-mile races, a high level of resilience is one of the secrets.

If I asked you whether you celebrate yourself, what would you say?

Yes, when you mean “not really”?

Sometimes?

Or, you will…once you achieve this or that?

If so, I’m going to invite you to celebrate more.