There are different school of thinking about how much mileage you actually have to do.
Emil Zapotek did his first marathon ever... at the Olympics... and won it. His training was highly conventional.
Brad (my beau) ran a sub 3 hour marathon when he was a junior and never did more than 20km as a long run. He did lots of short runs and regular speed sessions.
Maybe I just need to enter one so I have to do it.
That's why I've put this one on my calendar - to make me implement the training and body rehab I've been wanting to do anyway. Now I'm kind of forced to. But I'm being smart about it because the last time I tried for an ultra it took over my life. I have no interest in any race, of any length, taking up a bigger portion of my time and energy than other important parts of my life. So I'm being... unconventional in my training approach 😂 !LOL