When you buy something you didn't really need, and didn't really want, and when you think about it afterwards and you wish you hadn't, it's called buyers remorse.
When you enter an extreme ultra marathon event, that is so far beyond what you have ever achieved to date, and you think about it in the cold light of day without the euphoria of the emotion attached to the dream of... "What if I could actually succeed in doing that, Wow! how would that feel, what a real challenge!"... and you wonder if you can succeed, and you wonder how the hell you are going to do it, and just how are you going to train for it, and how are you going to sustain the effort required... its called a wake up call!
Because now you have entered, you have been "hung by your tongue", and you better put your money where your mouth is and get your arse into gear and start planning and training!
I woke up with that feeling everyday this week, (Oh my god, what a task, where do I start?) both before and after my gentle training runs, to ease me back into the discipline of building up the mileage after Namibia.
246km or 153 miles, in a single A to B stage, point to point race is an awesome undertaking by any standard, and even with the benefit of having completed tough multi-stage endurance races in the past, and a very tough Namibian Desert 75 mile single stage Ultra, I am nervous already about what this will take to achieve. This ranks right up there as the toughest event I have ever attempted... so far.
And then, I think about Pheidippides, on a mission, running this distance 2498 years ago in leather sandals, with no support, no head torch for the night section, no idea of what his reception would be, but running for his pride, his honour and his duty not to fail his brothers in arms... and I am truly inspired.
What a display of determination, focus, courage, spirit, and loyalty. A lesson from history that persistence and perseverance are the keys to achievement.
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