Unprepared For Another 100 Miler?

I'm doing the McNaughton Park 100 miler this weekend. And as usual, I'm unprepared. I haven't put in nearly enough overall miles and definitely not enough long runs. That's not new for me. This year I do have an excellent attitude about the race. I'm not sick and all my injuries have faded away. I have no plans to set a course record...but maybe a PR for this race. Last year I ran this sucker in 48+ hours (over 3 days with the early Friday at Noon start). That's a rather weak PR. It was excellent preparation for my 7-day stage race. With the Friday early start, I slept both Friday and Saturday nights and turned MP100 into my own little stage race. This year I have similar goals, but I would like to finish in less than 48 hours. I plan on running later into the night and sleeping less. If I get especially pumped, I may even finish this thing early Sunday morning (1-2am?) and end up with a 37-38 hour finish! How many others could say they knocked off 10 hours from their previous year's time?

This is Andy Weinberg's last year as race director. He's moved to Vermont and may well move the race up there in 2010. Hopefully, there will still be a version of McNaughton Park next year in Pekin, IL. It's a nice venue and there seems to be lots of support for the race among central Illinois ultra runners. Whatever happens, Andy has done a fantastic job with this race over the years. I've run this race every year since 2003 and enjoyed every one of them. Thanks Andy for all your hard work!

One of these years I'm going to commit to running a fast 100 miler. Maybe Rocky Raccoon in 2010? That was my first 100 miler way back in 2004 and it kicked my ass (I did finish, but it wasn't pretty). I'd love to go back and show that course what I can do. I have much more ultra running experience and think I could pull a sub-24 down there. One step at a time. Let's finish McNaughton Park 100 this weekend. My goal is to beat last year's finish time of 48:26. Hey, don't laugh, that finish was better than my previous 3 years at the McNaughton 100...DNF, DNF, DNF.