The Road to 100 #001

This one’s a little different from the usual waffle.

Most of what I write here looks backwards.

Races already run, moments already lived, thoughts that surface only once the dust has settled.

But this post is about what’s to come.

And those that follow will sit somewhere in the middle, written in motion, while things are still unfolding.

As some of you already know, my next race will be my first attempt at the 100-mile distance.

And with that comes a feeling I haven’t had in a long time.

Doubt.

Not nerves. Not pressure.

But the quiet, unshakable question of whether I can actually do this.

It’s been years since I’ve stood at the edge of something I wasn’t sure I could finish.

Not since my first marathon, when I didn’t yet know what my body could take, or how my mind might respond.

This feels similar. But heavier somehow.

I don’t know why.

Maybe I’ve built the distance up too much in my mind, placed it on a pedestal, made it something sacred.

I tell others not to do that.

Maybe that makes me a hypocrite.

Or maybe it just makes me human.

Or maybe it’s simply the scale of it, the sheer absurdity of covering that amount of ground, on foot, across one day, through the night, and into another. A long time to be moving. A long time to be alone with your own thoughts.

Or, more likely, I’m simply overthinking it. As usual.

Either way, it feels worth writing about.

So that’s what this will be. A journal of sorts. A monthly record of this slow and uncertain road towards 100 miles.

Not as a guide. Not as a blueprint.

But maybe as a window, for anyone who’s ever asked, “how do you even prepare for something like that?”

Well. Here it is. Or at least, here it will be.

What I’ve planned. What actually happened.

What broke down. What held up.

What I’ll carry forward.

Some months will go to plan. Some won’t.

But everything will be recorded here, honestly.

A good place to begin, I suppose, is with the plan itself.

(It’s colour-coded and everything.)

I’m coming off a solid 100k performance earlier this month, so my base feels strong.

But there are gaps. The most obvious being strength work, something I’ve always meant to get better at.

That’ll be a key focus over the next few months.

I’ll also be running at night for the first time, learning to trust my footing in the dark.

And I’ll be layering in back-to-back long runs to simulate running on tired legs.

As always, I’m not chasing pace.

The metrics that matter here are quieter ones: time on feet, controlled effort, elevation gained.

At the end of each month, I’ll post the original plan, what actually happened, and what I took from it, mentally, physically, maybe even emotionally.

For now, though, I’ll leave you with this:

“No one is more unhappy than the one who never faces adversity. For they are not permitted to prove themselves.”

—Seneca