Day before the Jackalope Jam Endurance Run

Less than 24 hours from now the gun will go off, signaling the start to the Jackalope Jam 24 Hour Endurance Run. Well they don’t actually shoot a gun, but you get the picture. I will have taken my first steps of a long grueling journey.

From my experience the day before the race is much more stressful than the race day itself. I get the same anxious feeling as the day before I leave on a long trip, with one major difference.  When I get on a plane and realize I forgot to pack socks, I can almost certainly just buy them when I reach my destination.

That’s not the case with an endurance race. Once I arrive at 7iL Ranch and that imaginary gun goes off, I am essentially stranded. If I forget my headphones or my sunglasses, I will be without them for the entire 24 hours.

Rest Assured,

They do have an aid station with water and plenty of snacks so basic nutrition is covered. However, I think things would get a little ugly if my head lamp died in the middle of the night and I forgot batteries.

The last few races I have stressed and lost sleep over which shoes to wear, gear to bring, food to eat, etc.  I think my race day performance has suffered from my pointless worrying and anxiety. My failures have taught me that the things I stress out about the most, actually matter the least.

Eventually,

When I get deep enough in the pain cave and really start to push beyond my limits. The playlist I was concerned about the night before doesn’t matter a single damn bit. All the trivial bullshit gets stripped away, mile by mile till eventually I am left with nothing but my will to continue moving forward.

So, for the race I am getting back to my roots and taking a page out of the book from my first ultra-marathon. If you haven’t seen the starting line of an endurance event. There are runners everywhere, with bags of gear, ice chest, spare clothes, tents, all sorts of bullshit. It’s a real madhouse.

“My failures have taught me the things I stress about about the most, actually matter the least”

But like I said I am taking a page out of my first 50 mile ultra, the one I naively showed up to run with nothing more than a quart sized Ziploc bag with one pair of socks inside. That I half way thought would be lost in the mix of massive duffel bags being thrown into the pile.

I wasn’t worried or nervous at all though. To be honest I thought it was ridiculous that these people needed that much shit just to run. As far as I was concerned, my legs were all I needed to finish the race.

That’s the attitude I am taking with me to this race. Sure, I am bringing more gear than a Ziploc bag can hold but I am not allowing myself to be bothered or worried about anything I may forget, or anything I may wish I had. Simply because once the race has begun none of it will matter anymore. It will just be my legs and I going to war with my mind.

I think it will be a game changer for my performance to be relaxed and focused on the steps in front of me. As opposed to anxiously worrying about things I cant change. There will definitely be highs and lows, but I feel confident that I will prevail by having the right mindset during the race and more importantly the day before the race.

I look forward to experiences the lessons I will learn.

Live Tracking of the race can be found HERE.

Check back on Monday for the race recap.