Epic Run with Peter Nelson

Well, I've had a few epic bikes and swims this season. It was only fitting that I have an epic run as well!

Prior to this run, my longest run had been about 2 hours. This breaks down to about 14 miles for me. In fact, my longest run past 15 miles last occurred in October 2004 when I ran the Chicago Marathon. I definitely was curious as to how this run was going to feel.

Lately, the weather hasn't been very cooperative around here. We have gotten lots of rain accompanied by some pretty wicked lightening and thunder. Wednesday was no different. Several storms had already rolled through during the afternoon and you could hear the rumbles in the distance. More than likely, we were going to get rained on. But, rain or shine, I needed to get this run in. It was the last critical run before the big day.

My friend Peter, an Ironman veteran and fellow trainee, met me at my office on Madison's near west side. We were scheduled to run for about 2.5 hours, which could come out to 16.5-18 miles. We set out around 515pm with some pretty wicked humidity and some rumbling thunder and massive grey clouds.

We started out on the Capital City Bike Trail until it connected with Seminole Hwy. At this point we headed down Seminole Hwy towards the Arboretum and Downtown Madison. The first half of the run was great! We had 'girl talk' and were cruising right along. In fact, we were probably running about 30 seconds/mile faster than we should have been. But, it felt good, so we went with it. We turned into the Arboretum where we ran into an old college roomate of mine, a deer and a few wild turkeys.

As we headed out of the Arb, it started to drizzle just a bit and there was an occasional flash of lightening but it still hadn't started to storm on us. We continued to chat about Ironman Sunday - food, the finish, cheering, the bike, etc...We both definitely were starting to feel how close the event really was. Just as we hit the halfway point in the run, it started to rain - HARD! And, the lightening really picked up. It just figures that this type of weather starts when we are the absolute furthest point away from where we started. Not much we could do except push on.

We ended up connecting with the John Nolen Bike Path and followed that around the lake until we connected back up with the Wingra Bike Path. We headed back for the arb. This is about the point in the run where things started hurting - feet, glutes, quads. We kept pushing though and maintained our steady pace. Once we hit the arb, the rain was really coming down. The streets were flooded and we were often zigzagging between each side of the road to avoid going through areas of standing water. It didn't matter much anymore though - we were soaked. The lightening was also becoming more frequent and more vivid. Yes, it was stupid to be out in it, but all we could do was keep moving and run back. Luckily we were in a heavily wooded area, which at least provided some feeling of safety.

About 2 hours into the run, we were suffering. Our legs hurt, everything was soaked and our pace was slowing. This is about the time I started thinking 'I'm crazy! Why am I doing Ironman again? Someone please remind me.' If nothing else this run gave me a window into the pain I'm going to experience on September 9th. And, it is manageable, but definitely not very fun.

The last 20-30 minutes of the run was painful and we were counting the minutes until we got back. It was still storming like hell and we must have seen every frog (or toad?) in Madison. Many of them were pretty tiny, but we saw one HUGE one! Even Peter was like 'Whoa!'.

We made it back - exhausted and sore, but feeling like we accomplished something. As much as race day is going to be a huge victory for each of us, it's the small victories that we have every week that make us what we are - crazy, determined, focused, future Ironmen and Ironwomen.

I'm pleased to report that I am far less sore today than I anticipated being. Last night I thought I was going to be hobbling around for days. Hooray for being more fit than I thought!

I have one more Epic ride before the training slows down. Saturday I will ride for 6 hours and run for 30 minutes following. It will be a great test of my pacing strategies and food/drink consumption. Hopefully, it all works out well and pays off on Ironman Sunday.

IM Sunday: 2 weeks, 3 days....and the clock is ticking!