“What the heck were you thinking?” said a tiny little whisper inside my head during a fit of dream-like restlessness. “Yeah, you’re in way over your head this time, pal!” chirped the butterflies in my stom ach as I tossed and turned just moments before my 3:15am wake-up call. From amid this symphony of doubt came a steady but sure voice of reason. “You’re ready for this. You’ve done all those long, hilly miles. You’ve raced over terrain as technical as this and you’ve hiked many of these trails already. On the other hand, the voice wavered, this is 12+ hours of running, on 33.3 miles, up over and down ten 4000 foot mountain peaks.” WHAM! The blast of the alarm clock sent a rush of adrenaline through my system. I bolted upright, in the pre-dawn darkness, and scarcely noticed that the voices had been silenced by the steady pounding of the rain. It was go time!
