FRIDAY’S FORECAST FOR HELL: HOT, with rain showers likely, then cooling off on Saturday. Trail conditions: 200 yards of campground road followed by 61.9 miles of slippery, shoe-eating mud.

Just hours now to Run Woodstock and my first-ever 100K trail race, starting at 4:00 Friday afternoon, and crossing the finish line somewhere between 4:00-6:00 a.m. Saturday. The rain is also supposed to start around 4:00 Friday afternoon, and end somewhere around 6:00 a.m. Saturday. Rain, dude, we’re good buddies and all, but why couldn’t you have signed up for a different event? Not that a little rain bothers me, of course. Not at all. Won’t even notice. Yeah.

At least the weather forecast made my preparation simple. Pack everything! That done, I went over to Hell Creek Ranch to help set up, making PB&J sandwiches and unpacking medals for the 1,600 people running this weekend. Mother Nature was there too, dumping about fifteen minutes of light rain on us. Just warming up for the races, you know.

I saw Randy, the race organizer there, and asked him about the quality of the trails. “Oh, they’re fine from the campground to the woods,” he said. Oh well, at least only the “hundies” (100K and 100-mile runners) will be out there Friday night. I can only imagine what the trails will be like Saturday morning when the other races start. Might need to call in the kayakers from the summer triathlons.

Full weekend report to follow. For now, gotta finish my pre-race training regimen: carbo-loading and rest. Let me tell you, sitting around watching TV and eating pie isn’t easy. Seriously. I am not used to this. But I’m doing my best.