In just over 2 weeks I will be running the Manitou's revenge ultra marathon (54 miles).  This coming saturday, the RD is arranging a preview of the last 16 miles of the course starting at 6pm and finishing in the dark.  I'm worried that previewing the most difficult terrain at night will screw up my confidence going in to the race.  I can see both sides of this, but I feel like I need some external input from you fine people to keep me thinking straight...nerves are starting to become a factor.  Let me know what you think.

For reference, the following is posted on the race website...I think 16-18 hours is a reasonable estimate of how long this will take me.

THIS IS NOT LIKE ANY OTHER ULTRA YOU’VE RUN BEFORE!

This is a grueling, gnarly, nasty course with approximately 14,000 ft. of climbing, much of it rocky and precipitous.  To be sure, there are some runnable sections, but you will more often find yourself hiking uphill or down, sometimes hand over hand.  Expect this course to take you much longer than your average 50 miler. That’s why we are allowing 24 hrs. to complete this monster. Because of its remote and difficult nature, there will of necessity be a limited number of aid stations, 8 or 9, and runners should be prepared to spend up to 3 or 4 hrs between aid stations. You will have to be reasonably self-sufficient. To make matters worse, the course gets progressively more difficult as you go along! And to top it all off, the average runner will have to tackle this hardest terrain in the dark.

I had my thoughts all set to go, and then I read XT's reply.  Ditto.

Good chance you'll be doing most of the section during daylight on race day, so why do it in the dark and risk an injury.

I'm all for looking and studying maps and elevations, but I'm not one that feels I need to experience the course before race time.

You did great at Ironmaster, and those were some hands on knees kind of climbs.

Good chance you'll be doing most of the section during daylight on race day, so why do it in the dark and risk an injury.

 

For reference, a 16 hour performance would be finishing at sunset.

I was planning on doing a fat ass 50K in August as a training run,  however it's on very technical terrain and lots of rocks to twist my ankles on, so I decided to keep my eye on the goal race and skip the 50K. So pretty much what Xtreme taper said, I would skip it so I don't get hurt.

Wow...the people have spoken!

I really thought everyone would be the other way on this one, but I think XT fleshed out the issue very nicely...thank you!  Thanks for everyone's input, it's hard to trust yourself sometimes.

I will go against the grain here.  I say go for it.  16 miles is very little of the course although from the description the most difficult.  Look at it this way, if you don't get much night trail work in (and I am not sure if you do), then it will help you to preview it.  By this time in the race, you will not be blasting through the trail.  Use it as a strategic run/hike.  Remember in the race, you will be exhausted at this stretch of the course.  You might be able to enjoy it more for this training run.

 

On the other hand, the other points xtaper et al. made are of course valid.

 

Did I miss your 100k training run? Did you do that one or skip it?

Haha, thanks for wrinkling it up again after I thought I had ironed it out .  I didn't do the 100k because I went to visit my 2 day old niece on that day.

My real hang up is this:  If I do this training run and the 16 miles are crazy, I have to think about that for 2 weeks and then some more during the preceding 38 miles come race day.  I'm not really sweating the night running stuff because if I'm still out there after dark I doubt I will be moving very fast.  I do a lot of night running on sidewalks and mix in some trails now and again so I don't feel like I need the practice.  If I were to do the training run, the purpose would be to gather as much information as possible about that section of the course (and pick other's brains about the rest of the course).

You're young and strong minded.  You won't cower after seeing the most difficult part of the course.  

 

Personally if I was running that race (and I had plans to do so before I got hurt) and lived close by, I would do the training run.  But that's just me.

 

On another note I am very excited for you.  This will be a crazy event! Can't wait to hear all about it.  I expect a detailed race report (pictures welcomed).

I agree with Jamie. and it might actually boost your confidence by knowing what the end looks like.  Sometimes on longer races when you are near the end it's nice to have some point of reference to what you need to do to finish the run.  If we worried about hurting ourselves before a race when would we ever train for it.

Put your big boy panties on and do it!!