An ultra plan according to my kids

While driving home from my first 50 miler last week, my kids were arguing in the back seat about what my plan should be for my next ultras.

“He should do a 100k ultra next year and a100 miler the year after that”
“No he should do the 100k this fall and the 100 miler next year”
“We will be in Colorado next summer and he can do one while we are there”
“He should run a marathon on every continent”

It is great they have such high ambitions for me but right now I can’t think of doing another one. I told my wife that the next time I talk of doing another ultra she should remind me how much time it took out of my weekends to train. I am expecting to feel the urge to sign up again in January for something and I need to set up someone with second sober judgment. But I am still expecting to succumb to the peer pressure no matter what those wise words might be.

But I committed a grave error this round since I did not sign up for another race before the last one on the list. Now I don’t have a race on my calendar and I don’t have any pressure to keep up the fitness and training. I had better search around and get signed up for something.

Maybe a fall marathon or a fast 10k. I don’t want to waste this fitness I have developed over the last few months.

This running longer every year is like a nightmare of a tunnel that has no end. You think you can see some light where running might start to consume less of your life but the light never gets closer.

Once you embark on this ultra journey is there an end to the running mania?