Road to Coach Jeremy’s 100-Mile Race: 226 Days to Go

Who’s Crazy Enough To Do This With Me?

Every bad idea is always more fun with friends, right? Currently, priority #1 is talking someone else into running 100 miles with me…in approximately 24-30 hours…through the night…without sleeping! My list of running friends gets pretty short when I think of who might be crazy enough to do this with me.

I have casually floated the idea to a handful of friends in the last few months. Generally I get one of two responses. The first, and most common, is usually something to the effect of “you’re insane”. Then, I get peppered with a bunch of follow-up questions that I have no good answers for, such as “how many days is that going to take?” (hopefully about one), “is it a relay?” (yeah, one-man relay team here), and my favorite “why would you even do that?” (no idea honestly, still trying to figure that one out).

The second response usually comes from friends who are a little more serious about running and have some interest in the Ultra running scene. Their follow-up questions tend to be more about the race, such as “what is the course like? (point to point with a mix of surfaces), “how’s the elevation?” (not bad, and most of it is in the first 15 miles), “do you have a crew lined up?” (I do, and it will be their first Ultra experience also, so what could go wrong?).

It’s the second group that gives me just a little hope that I can talk someone into doing this with me. So far, I have a few prospects. Prospect #1 is a friend who already has an Ultra scheduled, and this would be a 2nd race within two weeks. Seems crazy, but if anyone can do it, it would be him. Prospect #2 is another friend who is a great endurance athlete, his longest run is a 50K, and he is “50% in”. Prospect #3 is an awesome triathlete who recently relocated to Michigan, and she can be bribed with boxes of Bugles.

Trying to lure a friend along does pose another question – what are the odds I could run this with someone else? Who knows how each of us will be feeling? What if one of us needs to DNF? What if we drive each other crazy and duke it out in the woods? I think these are all real concerns. But, as the saying goes, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there!

For now, I’m trying to play it cool and slowly reel one of these three in before they realize what they are getting into. I’m not above begging, bribing, or blackmailing if needed, lol! Hopefully by the time the snow melts around here, I will have someone crazy enough to do this with me all lined up. Wish me luck!