Going into Tahoe 200 I wasn't sure whether or not I wanted to run any more 200s this year. I lost a 200 at Razorback in March because of Sesamoiditis pain. I lost a 200 at Bigfoot in August because of overconfidence and not checking my gear (shoes shrunk after Colorado 200). I lost a 200 at Potawatomi because my dad was in a medically induced coma (he's mostly fine now).
So going into Tahoe, I had 5 200s in the trailing year, but last year's Tahoe 200 dropped off the calendar so I was back down to just 4. Depressing! But Tahoe went so well. Running with Ace and Joel and Geoff and Rick was a ton of fun, and Rick and I ended up tying for 5th place overall, knocking off 8 hours from last year's time and coming close to hitting 3 days even (3 days, 0 hours, X minutes).
But all this travel and post-race exhaustion has taken a toll on my time with family, work, house projects, and have you seen a yard that hasn't even been looked at in a year? We have one. I wasn't going to do any more unless my wife and boss both said yes. Surprisingly, they did. So here we go again!
We start off with Tom Bunk 200, a 22-lap race in Wisconsin with a 60-hour cutoff. I've never made it 200 miles in 60 hours, but I could have at Pigtails and this race is very similar. Things will have to go well but I know it's within my abilities. A short week later, and it's off to Florida for Icarus. I chose the 6-day option so there's no pressure after tBunk. Also, maybe I can beat Joel Gat. ;)
There are only 10 entrants so far in the 200 at tBunk, but that's pretty normal for that race. Only 2 signed up for the Dec 28 start of the 72 hour at ATY, but that's also normal since most people want to run "Across the Year". I had to choose that one to prevent any overlap with my first 200 of the year, last year's Dec 31 start.
I hope to run 202 miles at tBunk (the actual distance), maybe 440 at Icarus, and about 240 at ATY. To hit all those, everything must go perfectly!
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