Saturday is race time

Finally time to stop whining and go run the Jupiter Peak Steeplechase.  I can't complain.  The weather is supposed to be nice, my training has gone well, and I haven't had any injuries. Sure wish I had started earlier in the year.  In the first five months I ran a total of 46 miles.  In June and July, I ran just under 200.  Another month would have been nice.  Here are my goals, in order of success:

1. Get past the turnaround point before the time limit.  There is a point on the course, that if you get there too late, they make you turn around and go home.  That would be very sad.
2. Finish the race and walk away under my own power.
3. Finish something other than last place.
4. Finish something other than last place for the men.
5. Finish in less than 3 hours and 12 minutes.  This is my fairly realistic goal.
6. Finish in less than 3 hours.  This is my highly unlikely, unrealistic goal, but it is always nice to have one.

The guy who wins will run 7 minute miles and finish in under 2 hours.  For me, this is about as relevant as the guys who run marathons at under a 5 minute per mile pace. Impressive, but I am fairly certain they are not humans.

The big pisser is that everyone expects running and walking up long, steep hills would be slow, but I have discovered that I can actually run a good bit faster on flat ground than I can coming down a steep hill.  I was hoping the downhill would balance out more.  Nope.

I'll post how it all works out.