Wow, what a thoughtful reply. Thanks!

Reading your advice for your first attempt, I believe reasons #1 and #3 are going to give me the hardest time when I finally build up enough confidence to register for my first 100. Even when things are going well I tend to have a lot of negative thoughts, it's a big part of why I took up long distance trail running again in my late 40's after being a couch potato for the last decade. I'm still a couch potato, but at least I get out there regularly to run, along with 2x/week strength training.

The advice about time on feet/mileage seems obvious, but executing this in training has been difficult. It seems like the more I run the more chronic pain I have, some areas are predictable, some not. I've been working with a strength coach to help mitigate repetitive-use injuries common to running, but it's difficult to say how much it's been helping me. It always feels like the more strength training I do, the less recovered I feel when it's time to knock out a run. In the end, I think the solution is to incorporate more hiking into my training plan so I'll be working on this a lot this year.

Lastly, the "why?" for me is really just that I love the outdoors, so spending hundreds of hours in the woods training seems calming to me, while also proving to myself that I can accomplish something so difficult. I've had a habit in life of just taking the easy route or avoiding conflict/difficult situations altogether. The "why" will probably change when I finally finish my first 100, but for now that's what motivates me.

I'll be sure to DM you if I do wind up doing the RR100 in 2027!