The year of running long. Very long. Like, really really long.

Immediately after the Florence Marathon, Coach Ben asked me what my next goal was going to be.  In a burst of endorphin-fueled optimism, I said 'I've always fancied an ultra.'  (For the non-running readers, an ultra marathon is any race over 26.2 miles.)  In my head, he laughed and told me to think of something a bit more sensible.  What he actually said was, 'Great, we can do that!'  I thought that he was joking and that he'd come to his senses once he had a proper think about it.

However, when we spoke a couple of weeks after Florence, he remained enthusiastic about the idea and told me to have a look online at the different options .  I sent him a month-by-month list of ultras (I was being thorough, not obsessive) with some marathons and half-marathons added in for good measure, and we came up with a plan for 2018 that made me laugh with excitement while simultaneously terrifying me.  Apparently feeling both of those emotions is a Good Thing (to paraphrase Coach Ben, 'If it doesn't scare you, it isn't worth doing') and suggests that at the very least, I'm not going to be bored!

So, here's the plan:

31 March:  John Muir Way Ultra (50k):  From Port Seton to Dunbar in East Lothian (near Edinburgh), mostly along the coast and on a combination of paths, tracks, and roads.  And a bit of sand.

26 May:  London 2 Brighton Challenge (100k):  From Richmond on Thames to Brighton, taking in the North and South Downs.  Some roads, some trails, some hills.  Yikes!  But apparently the cakes at the aid stations make it all worthwhile.

Autumn:  a marathon still to be decided, possibly Dublin or maybe Florence again, and I wouldn't mind having another crack at the River Ness 10k as well.  Assuming, of course, that my legs are still functioning by this point.

It's hard for me to believe that I've gone from, in the early days of this blog, not being able to run more than 12 miles/week without getting injured to thinking that running 100k in one go (well, running along with judicious bits of walking - no one except the top runners runs every single step of an ultra) is achievable.  I have no idea whether I'm physically or mentally tough enough to cope with an ultra distance, but that's part of the adventure - to find out where my limits are and, hopefully, to have fun along the way.

Because to paraphrase Coach Ben's paraphrase, 'If it's not fun, it's not worth doing!'