I had been riding my bike to work some days. Most of the longer rides still happened after work.
They were not that long yet. I rarely went past fifty miles. We were talking about bigger weekend rides, but first the bike needed a tune-up and I needed more time on it.
Tomorrow was the Leadville Trail Marathon.
I wanted to finish around five hours. That was not a soft goal. The previous year's winner had run about 3:47, and a friend had finished in 4:17 for seventh. I called the course grueling before I ever got to the start.
The marathon was not even the biggest idea in the message. We were also talking about the Leadville Trail 100 later in the summer. A hundred-mile run was close enough to discuss and far enough away to remain a plan.
Training had to fit around work. I was still at SimAuthor, running Praxis on the side, and applying for the next systems job. Three more Dice inquiries went out the same day. Unix, networking, the bike, and Leadville all shared one Friday.
I promised to report back after the marathon. For now I had a race the next morning, a five-hour goal, and nowhere near enough evidence that a hundred miles was a sensible next step.
The applications were already out. The bike still needed a tune-up. First I had to see what Leadville did to the plan.
Five hours was the number I had put in writing. Tomorrow I would find out how close that number was to reality.