Things seemed a little different going into the Haliburton Forest 100 mile Trail Run this year. Last year was my first 100 mile race and I had a lot of questions. However, getting the first one out of the way in 2008 and having another year of solid training under my belt (buckle) left me in a good place going into this year. You never want to be overconfident before an ultra, as anything can happen, however I felt pretty good that on race day if I ran smart things would go well.Going into the race, I had a staircase of four goals that I wanted to achieve this year at Haliburton. On the first stair was finishing the race in a faster time than last year of 18:42. After that, the thought of breaking Jeff Simpkins 2006 course record of 18:23. Next, on an ideal day and if everything went well, I wanted to break 18 hours. And finally, on the top step was the goal of winning the race again.
The field of competitors for the 2009 race was proving to be a competitive one. My friend, Keith Iskiw from nearby Kingston has been running really well this year and was going to have a great day. We also heard that an Italian runner named Pasquale Brandi was running. Pasquale is a veteran of many challenging ultras including strong showings in a number of desert races and stage races. During the pre-race dinner, we also discovered that Glen Redpath from New York City was a last minute entry. Originally from Winnipeg, Glen has represented Canada at international ultrarunning competitions; and finished 2nd this year at both the Bull Run Run 50miler and Massanutten 100miler.
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