May 1st Update:
What's the Big Deal About Breaking a Little Commitment?

Hold onto your sneaker inserts... the dilly-dallying of my 100-mile commitment gets a hot flash!

FEBRUARY:
I continued to meet with Dr. Chiropractor weekly to arrest problems with Achilles Tendon soreness and inflammation. He also broke-up scar tissue under and around the big knuckle on my big toe on my left foot - stiffness, swelling and pain I've had since falling and banging it about 5 years ago. With the disappearance of Achilles' tendon bumps on both ankles, essentially painless running, and greater mobility in my big toe (I know... that's weird) ... I was rockin' in my running shoes for the first time in some years. With these treatment gains, I discontinued chiropractic care after a mere 6-7 appointments. That was money well spent!

MARCH:
My weekly running miles continued to increase to about 60 per week. My long runs felt good as I focused on running my first 100K (62M) in April. My goal: to use this race experience as a litmus test for determining if I would honor my 100-Mile Commitment.

Life became super busy about this time. C-Team and I decided to live together and merge our households of four big kids, a parakeet, two gold fish, and one itty-bitty toy pooch... once she sold her home. This was a good thing. But merging two households required extensive energy for helping C-Team to prepare her home for sale, and mine to accommodate more kids and pets..

As life became busier... so did my practice. Training became harder to squeeze in. (Oh... did I mention weekend Soccer tournaments scheduled as far away as NJ?) Life was good... just super busy!

APRIL:
With my first 100K in April, Paddle-Jammer (AKA Brian) asked to join me as a pacer and support person for the race. P-J is is a world class paddler in the Canoe Classic Race in the Adirondacks, he runs a marathon in about 2:05 (err... 3:05... err... ), has no body fat, and can bench press five times his weight. So... I figured I was in pretty good company with the likes of P-J to support and pace me at the race.

(Cut to the chase you say?)

The Jack Bristol/Lake Waramaug Ultra Race in CT loops Lake Waramaug 7 times - in addition to, two small 4.5 mi loops at either end of the race for 100Kers.

I truly appreciated Paddle-Jammer as my sole support team and pacer the last 12 miles of the race. Especially, that last 4-mile loop... what a killer! Although my average pace per mile for the first 50 miles was about 12:00... and I did some walking the last 4 miles... I finished the race with an average pace per mile of 12:25. - five minutes ahead of my own projection.

Although this race adventure is described elsewhere in this site... it was sufficient to say... by the end of this race... I knew... 62 miles is about as far as I ever want to run. Therefore, the VT100M was out. (Ugs.)

The day after the race (Monday) I e-mailed the VT100M RD and told him I was withdrawing from the race; I had already discussed the matter with C-Team. Later in the day I spoke with my parents, RB One Kenobi (Jedi Knight), my kids, the Hat, etc., and told then about my 100K adventure and my decision to withdraw from the VT 100M. I had actually felt some relief.

On Tuesday, however, something began to happen. As the soreness in my legs gradually lessened, I had this strange twitch in the core of my running soul. It was a quiet gnawing at my decision to withdraw from the VT 100M. I couldn't quite figure it out, though.

Then on Wednesday... with my legs feeling pretty darn good... and the memory of an agonizing finish to the race three days earlier becoming a rather remote memory... I understood it. Dang... I had to... I wanted to... I wanted to run a 100 mile adventure!

I had made a decision: I'm runnin' the VT100M! (... after all.)