Strategy makes getting to the finish line simple.

Even a little makes a difference.

In an ultra, your most basic goal is to get to the finish line…ahead of cutoff time.

Distance matters but time matters too. You don’t get an official finish if you get there after cutoff, so the faster you go, the better and the less stressful it is.

At 71 miles in the dark at Javelina 100, I came down the rocky hill into the Jackass Junction aid station feeling uncharacteristically a mess.

My body felt like lead all day and was grinding to a halt, and I was only 30 minutes ahead of cutoff.

I know what to do to reset and get back on course and decided to invest a moment in sitting down to stretch my back before moving on.

Imagine yourself at night in your first 100-mile race, standing in the 63-mile aid station.

You’ve dropped off your favorite pacer and your crew has helped you eat, drink, and fill your bottles.

You’re ready to head out on the next section and the clock is ticking.

Imagine you’re in race like Javelina 100 that’s five loops and you’re starting your fourth.

The most grueling loop.

The first two loops are easy. The third, halfway loop feels worth celebrating, and last loop is the icing on the cake you’ve been working for months to build.

For the past four years, I’ve run No Business 100 in mid-October and Javelina 100 at the end of the month.

So I didn’t think twice about registering for both.

Until the moment three short weeks before No Business I realized this year, they’re on back-to-back weekends.

Panic…

How do you survive the boredom of a multi-loop race?

You’ll be running around the the same circle over and over again for hours looking at the same things. It’s going to be hard and you’re going to feel like you aren’t getting anywhere.

And every lap, you’re near your car so it’s easy to drop.

I was trained for 30 miles. I ran 100.

In the three months leading up to Superior 100, I ran a small long run every Friday - 18-20 milers and a 25 miler or two - intending to build up in the last month.

But less than a month before the race, I got my first bout of COVID and took the week off.

In your upcoming race, you’re determined to avoid mistakes that would jeopardize your finish, especially ‘stupid’ ones.

Going out too fast is at the top of that list.

It’s the most basic, common piece of ultra advice given. Everybody knows not to do it…and yet you do.

“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.

This weekend, I plan to run Superior 100 for the 22nd time, but this one has a unique twist.

I’ve had two unexpected week-long, didn’t-run-a-step breaks in the month leading up to the race.

The first week-long break was for COVID and the second was for another unexpected event.

The breaks are so close to the race I don’t have time to make up the training, even if I wanted to.

A year ago, you would have said, “Age is just a number.”

Today, you can’t deny that your body is aging.

You’re not ready. You want to keep running ultras but it seems like you have to come to terms with the fact that you’re slowing down. It’s inevitable.

When you DNF, people offer a lot of opinions, advice and motivational sayings to help.

“You should/shouldn’t have X.”

“You need to Y.”

Pre-race anxiety can ruin your sleep, keep you from thinking clearly, and make you snap at those trying to help you.

We’re talking more than simple pre-race butterflies.

Pre-race anxiety can get unbearably uncomfortable and since you want to feel confident going into your race, it’s natual to want to reduce it or make it disappear.

You want to do everything you can to finish the race.

You have to do it all right but there’s so much of ‘it.’

Pace, climbs, aid stations, eating, hydration, crew, pacers, drop bags. The training alone is a bottomless rabbit hole.

You can go into a race hoping to endure suffering or you can go in planning to eliminate it and hit your goal.

But you can’t do both.

It’s easy to assume running ultras is all about enduring suffering. So much is made inside and outside the sport about it.

“I never took miracles off the table.”

One of my fabulous clients recently said this in a session and it took my breath away.

Because it means miracles are always on the table, unless you take them off.

Tough runners are stubborn.

Capable of enduring hardship.

Willing to take on impossible tasks.

“It’s just not fun any more - I’m dropping.”

I talk with runners all the time who walk away from a race disappointed because it wasn’t what they expected it to be.

Finish or not - it let them down.

Freedom.

One difference that’s created success for me over the years is that I see ultrarunning as freedom.

It’s been the one place in my life I get to decide how I want to do it, how I want to define success, and what’s possible for me.