Chris Petruccio: Part Three, Pre-Race Planning

However, this time I was gonna take it slow and do it right.
Start with a 50k. That’s an Ultra. The training seemed more reasonable.

Found Bill’s Bad Ass 50k on Facebook. It’s for first timers and you need a mentor. Once again, I turned to my man Kevin Tenkku. He agreed to mentor me..... again. We had time to train. The event wasn’t until November. However the date got changed and I couldn’t make the new one so I started looking for another 50k. I mean after all I was on a quest.

That’s when I found the YUT-C 50k. Although the event was in mid September and it cut the training time in half everything about the event just seemed right to me. It was close to home and the course looked beautiful.

I only had about 5 weeks to prepare so Kevin changed up the training plan. About a week or so before the event , Laurie Rehbergar told me that she and her husband Paul were coming down to support and crew for me. I was really taken back by this. I’d only met Paul on one other occasion, a charity softball game that Laurie had helped me with. It amazed me that they would spend their time and money to support me.

 We decided to go down to Youngstown on Friday and have dinner together.
Missi and I arrived a few hours before Paul and Laurie so we went down to check out the park. and some of the course. While there we just happened to meet Jim Harris and Kim Love-Ottobre. They were busy with race course prep but still took the time to speak with us and answer questions about the race.

Later we went for dinner. We sat and talked about life and all the things that come with it. Paul made prints of the course and we devised a strategy.

That night in the hotel room I threw the switch in my mind. I decided that I was not going to let these people and all the others who have supported me down. As I laid in my bed, staring at my Runwell jersey, a new realization had come over me. My quest for Ultra was no longer about me. It was about the people who had loved and supported me in that quest.

Click here for the Part Four, the Race Report !