My first ever DNF

Ever since running the JFK 50 miler at the end of November, I have been in a bit of a running slump. At first I had planned to take a complete month off from running after the race. I was inspired to do so after reading an article on Scott Jurek's blog, where he describes how he takes four to six weeks of complete rest from running at the end of every year to recharge his batteries, mentally and physically. The blog article goes on to describe how some Kenyan runners also take a long break from running at the end of every season, sometimes not running a step for two months. I decided to give it a try. It was much harder than I imagined. In fact I found not running at all to be quite a bit harder than training for an ultramarathon. I found it to be so hard that I started cheating. I started doing little three or four mile runs a couple of times a week. I needed to do this in order to maintain some mental equilibrium. My cheating got worse: I started doing six miles runs from Brooklyn over the Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges to and from Manhattan. Finally I accepted that I had failed to achieve my goal of a complete break from running. I cannot live without running, even for a few weeks. This was my first ever DNF (Did Not Finish). This is why I am not Scott Jurek. I now have a lot more admiration for people who do not run. I had no idea how difficult this is.

Despite failing at not running at all, after six weeks I also found it difficult to become motivated to run a lot and resume hard training. So for a while now I have been running in "maintenance mode", just enough to stay sane, but no more. But I miss the long distance runs, and I miss running in the woods and falling flat on my face as I trip over hidden tree roots. I needed something to motivate me to start running hard again.

At last I have finally found the motivation I am looking for. Last week I signed up for the North Face Bear Mountain Endurance Challenge. This is series of races, from 10K to 50 miles, taking place over the weekend of May 8th-9th in Bear Mountain and Harriman State Parks, about 50 miles north of New York City. I registered for the 50K race. I was tempted to register for the 50 mile race, however from the description of the course on the website this sounds extremely challenging:

"The 50-Mile course has roughly 9,000 feet of elevation gain over technical, rocky trails with multiple shallow stream crossings and hiking sections." "The North Face Endurance Challenge in Bear Mountain is likely as tough as any endurance trail run this area could offer," said Brian Duncanson, race ambassador and course designer.

This clip from a previous year gives some idea of the terrain:



Yesterday, after work (I work in Westchester), I drove up to Bear Mountain to get an idea of what I had signed up for. I ran up Bear Mountain, just as it was getting dark. It was everything I love about running on trails. It was very hilly, very beautiful, a little scary, and very challenging. I am not sure I will be ready to run 31 miles on this type of terrain by the beginning of May. But I am going to try. I plan to go to Bear Mountain at least once a week up until race day, to get some experience of running in this environment. One day I would like to be able to complete the full 50 mile distance, maybe next year, maybe the year after. It seems daunting. So now I have a goal. The running slump is over.