In two weeks time, instead of sitting in my bean bag drinking coffee with my ball obsessed kelpie getting increasingly frustrated with my lack of interest in her ball, I’ll hopefully be about 30k into my journey to cover 100 miles (160km) in one go.

I would have travelled from the start line in Kawerau (nostalgically the finish line when I ran my first 100k race there in 2017) through the forest roads of the Rotoma forest to the outlet aid station, the first one with a drop bag.

It seems wild that is is so close and yet there is so much time left to stuff it up before you even get to the start line.

I learnt a lot of lessons in 2023 especially around managing all the stresses in my life. I don’t want to forget them in the taper madness.

I listened to a great podcast with a tapering expert on the Jason Koop podcast, the Koopcast. The moral of the story, you can’t really improve your race outcome now, you can’t get fitter, but you can negatively impact your race experience and performance by messing up the taper.

I’ve found myself having to remind myself of this a lot this week, especially as my Strava noodle (weekly total) may not be what I want it to be.

There is no point obsessing over the “should haves” and trying to bring them in. Oh you should have done more strength training? You should have practiced your nutrition? It’s too late for that now, focus on giving your body a chance to absorb the work you did do!

I’m really ready for the race to be here, which is a far cry from the general ambivalence I’ve had on the start line of other races.

I’m excited and grateful that I get to do this. I’m excited to see the volunteers and thank them for their time and enthusiasm.

There was once a time when I loved this race and the people more than anything, I’m strangely excited to enjoy each step of those trails as I say goodbye to it.

I’m also generally curious about it. What can I actually do here? Could I be good at this? Could this be my new favourite distance? Or my one and only miler?

I have no idea what’s going to happen! I’ve never been further than 100km. My longest run on Garmin is Tarawera 2017, 104.13km apparently.

My training this week hasn’t been all that interesting, just more of the same, except a little less.

Mostly runs with the dogs and loop runs at the local trails because it’s a nice easy loop where I can really run up the hills and remind myself that I need to and can run these little climbs in the race.

My new shoes came (just new ones of the same versions I already have) but I can’t get them to fit quite right, so I may be running in ye olde faithful after all! At least they don’t have holes in them.

I also channeled my inner Zach Miller and got my pack repaired instead of buying a new one.

The hay is in the barn, the training is done. Let’s just not fuck it up!