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Brazil 135!

Winning the category for least-closely held secret in my running life, it’s time to officially announce on the blog that I’ll be participating in the Brazil 135 on January 17-19, 2014.

Doing this race has been in the back of my mind for years, ever since meeting Jason Obirek at Badwater in 2009 and hearing stories about the race. This summer I really started thinking about it and then, when I was at Badwater this year, it went from a vague thought to a decision to make it happen. In Death Valley I was surrounded by Brazil veterans – everyone else on Ray’s crew, including Ray had done the race at least once, and those guys introduced me to Mario Lacerda, the Brazil 135 race director, and other Brazil vets, including Tony Portera and Jarom Thurston, the official US liaisons for the race.

After crewing at Badwater and thinking about it a lot that week, I decided to apply. I got in (a few months ago) and am now working on the planning and logistics. I’ve quickly been learning this is going to be unlike anything I’ve ever done.

It will be my first race outside of the US and the first big race I’ve ever done in January, both of which present challenges. Racing in a non-English speaking country means that all of race the logistics are much more complicated than a US race. Thankfully, Mario, Tony, Jarom and other veterans I know have been super helpful with this. I have accommodations set and a Brazilian-American friend of Jarom’s is going to help crew me. Aaron is going to come down as well. I still need to work on flights, visas and race-day type stuff like nutrition. Racing in January is tough. By this time of the year, I’m tired and looking forward to an off-season with rest. Gearing up for another couple months of big training is a physical and psychological challenge. Also, it’s during the hot and humid Brazilian summer and I’ve been told to expect to just be soaking wet the entire time.

And, oh yeah, it’s 135 miles and over 30,000 feet of cumulative ascent and should take me well over 40 hours (if I’m lucky…).

I’ll post more details about the race, the course, the participants, what I’m expecting, etc. over the next couple months. But for now, here’s the course elevation profile (elevation in meters (max is about 5,500 feet) and distance in kilometers):