Time for another long one. The Bear 100 starts at six on Friday morning.

But first, the bad news. Last winter, Christy picked this run across the Bear River Range of Utah and Idaho to be her big race of the season. It’s been two years since she last took on a 100-miler (Leadville), and she was really looking forward to it. But when the unwelcome signs of an upper-respiratory illness began to surface last weekend, Christy realized she might not be over it in time to run the race. Despite her best efforts to get better, Friday is just too soon. Extremely disappointed, she’s decided she shouldn’t participate.

It’s a tough call for sure, but probably the right one. After training towards a goal for so long, it’s only natural to do everything you can to make it happen, but the reality is that taking on such a long course when feeling anything less than 100% isn’t a good idea. I’m impressed by her determination though, being pretty congested and only halfway through her 5-day Z-pac, part of her still insists she might be good to go by Friday. Most people– and I’ll include myself here– might take her situation as a welcome excuse to spare them the misery. But then again, she’s not like “most people,” which is why she’s packing to race. Just in case.

Somehow, I didn’t catch Christy’s bug and will be starting among a field of 250 runners. I’m planning on going out conservatively like I always do, and with a little luck, I might be able to wrap this up in the 24-hour range. We’ll see.

The race homepage should have online tracking setup by race day, should anyone find themselves with nothing better to do on this gorgeous fall weekend. I’ll try to get the link up when it’s live.

And to Christy, if not this weekend, we all know you’ll get it next time.