New Years day marked not only a new year, but the two week window for the start of the Spine Race. For those of you who do not know, the Spine is a multi-day 268 mile, non-stop, winter mountain marathon that encompasses the entire Pennine Way in Northern England. The start is at Edale southeast of Manchester and the finish is on the Scottish border at Kirk Yetholm.
My taper has started, packing is almost complete, travel plans are being verified and weather reports are being eyed. So far I am healthy, had a record mileage year with a large amount of pack miles and did not over indulge during the holiday break. Now is the time to start letting go of the many details and contingencies and just start getting into the proper frame of mind. Focusing on those things I can control and letting go of those things I can not. What will happen will happen; how you deal with it at the time determines if you succeed or fail. There are so many things that can happen over such a long event you can never plan for them all. That what makes this type of racing/running interesting!
Those who wish to follow the event there will be a live tracking service at the following link: http://live.thespinerace.com/ . My number is 088 if you are so interested. Start is scheduled for 0800 on the 15th of January and the cut off is 0800 on the 22nd seven days later. I may also be shooting out some blog updates from time-to-time if I have the motivation and can’t sleep (unlikely).
Looking forward to the adventure!
Ultra Stage Racing 