50K in Hell

If you been following my training on dailymile or read my tweets, you know I run a lot. Over the last few months I've been thinking about my next challenge. Most people would assume since my longest distance raced was the half marathon, that naturally my next step would be the marathon. I didn't think that way. I was hoping my next challenge would be a 50K race.

I plan on running the Chicago Lakefront 50K in 2012. I wanted this race to be my first ultra because it is the flattest 50K course. Last weekend I was talking to a running friend of mine. I told him that I wanted to run an ultra. I mentioned to him before that I put my name into my track club to be included on a Dances With Dirt relay team. But I don't know if I will be apart of a relay team. It all depends on how many people sign up. He suggested to run the DWD 50K. When he said that I wasn't sure. Then he said if I signed up for it, he would run it with me.

Now that is something different. I would have someone with me on the entire course. I would someone to push me when it gets difficult. That is very tempting. Right now I'm really leaning toward telling him yes. Before I give my friend my answer, I should probably run it by my husband first. I like to have my husband's input on things. Many of my dailymile and twitter friends told me to go for it.

I know I have the training base down cold for this race, I run 80-100 miles a week. If I do decide to run this race, I will have to hit the trails every week to train for it. I was told there was no time limit, which is good. I'm just a little nervous about it. This a huge race on a difficult course. Is this something I'm ready for? Or should I just wait and run my first 50K on the flattest course in the U.S. in Chicago? So many decisions to make.