200 Miles. WTF?!

What the heck am I thinking?

So far I've run 8 races of 100 miles or more. 7 of them are official 100 milers, and one of the races was a 72 hour one in which I ran 161 miles.

I can remember three of those 100 mile races where I was either coming in limping or walking pretty badly towards the finish line.

The 72 hour race? That was at Three Days at the Fair, where I had problem after problem keeping going after 100 miles. My feet swelled up so much that I had to run in regular sports sandals for the last 30 miles of the race. And it took me well over 6 weeks to recover from that race.

Now comes a slew of 200 mile races. And most of these are in the mountains. Oh boy...

For years it was just the Tor des Geants in the Italian Alps for a number of years This was the premier survival race of this distance.

Now we have three mountain 200s in the United States, the Bigfoot 200, the Tahoe 200 and the Colorado 200.

Here is Trail Whippass and Ultimate Badass Ultrarunner Conrado Bermudez at the finish line of the Bigfoot 200, along with RD and "Sadist" Candice Burt, who also puts on the Tahoe 200 race. Not sure how he is smiling after this crazy race...

And there are probably more to come!

I can just picture myself limping badly at 100 miles...heck, I've done that several times already. But the kicker is that I'M ONLY HALFWAY THERE!

The reason why I'm talking about these 200 milers is that I've already had nightmares about them. And why am I thinking about these races?

Because I'm probably thinking about doing one.

As a matter of fact, if I don't get into Western States this year, I've already made my choice of doing one next September. If I do actually get selected into this race, the nightmares will continue.

Just put me in a straitjacket right now or this might happen to me...

Would I do the Grand Slam of Running Again If Picked for Western States?

In a word...yes.

Now why would I want to suffer again through four more 100 mile races in 10 weeks, especially including what will most certainly be a nightmarish run at Leadville?

Good question. I really cannot answer that.

Maybe because it is so darned tough to do that I want to take up that challenge again? Maybe I would be one of the only few that actually finished more than one? Maybe it's because of this trophy that I earned when I finished it in 2013?

I only have about a 4% chance of getting into Western States anyway, so I'm making other plans for next year. But, a slim possibility is still a possibility, right? :-D