After four days off, I got back to some running. After all, I had Comrades to knock out. But before I could take on Comrades (56 hilly miles through South Africa), I needed to reflect on my time. For 38 weeks, I had hit the bike, sloshed in the water, and pounded the pavement. It was a major sacrifice to the family, my energy level, and general sense of sanity, but becoming an Ironman all over again was worth it.
I am not a big swimmer but I managed 116500m in the pool. That is 116 kilometers. That is 4640 lengths of the pool. It took me 45 hours, 19, minutes, and 4 seconds. That is swimming for the amount of time people work in a week, plus lunch breaks, with overtime. I swam the distance of the Ironman (2.4 miles) over 30 times.
One of the biggest improvements was my cycling. Although by no means a cyclist compared to most standards, I upped my mileage and intensity. I bagged 2089.7 miles. That is cycling from Detroit to Disney World, FL, then back. I spent 112 hours, 31 minutes, and 40 seconds on the bike. That’s 7351 minutes in the saddle. Since I like to watch some TV shows on the bike, I could watch 334 episodes of a show (no commercials).
My running was not as much as normal, which is fine. I managed 832 miles which is about 22 miles per week. Seems low, but on top of the other training, it was still equivalent to almost 32 standard marathons. That is like running from Greeley, CO to Las Vegas. I ran fine at IM, so it was enough. I just hope it is enough for WS100.
I also spent over 6 hours in the gym, which I despise, and 14 hours and 30 minutes doing core work. That is enough time to watch all of the Rocky movies and continuously do sit-ups throughout. The fastest people in the world can run 100 miles and I would just do sit-ups the whole time.
Total
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||
Cumulative
Distance
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Cumulative
Time
|
|
Swim
|
116500m | 45:19:04 |
Bike
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2089.7 mi
|
122:31:40
|
Run
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832 mi
|
113:03:42
|
Core
|
N/A
|
14:30:00
|
Lift
|
N/A
|
6:15:00
|
Comrades Marathon 2012
Down is not easier! I was very busy with work this year and didn’t even think of the race until I was on the plane, less than 14 hours before the start of the race. It wasn’t ideal. But the excitement on the line snapped me back to attention. I set off to run just under 9 hours, a Bill Rowan medal, and to finish without impacting my ability to do Western States well.
Early on, it was easy. The course is, after all, down. I hooked up with an Irishman named Paul, a Dublin cop, with about 65k to go. We ran every step together from there. About 20 times per mile, people would yell, “Hey look, Ireland!” or “Have a Guinness,” or “Sing us a song, Laddie!” At first it was funny, but after a while, it just got weird. Paul’s comment: “We are a rare breed.”
Hitting the marathon in about 3:41 and the half in 3:55 I knew I was too fast. But it was easy up till that point. I encouraged a few preemptive walk breaks and as the last half bombed downhill, I needed them. The pain of going downhill is far worse than up. With 20 miles to go, I finally saw Sarah. She was supposed to meet me about 3 times before that but couldn’t connect due to the traffic and crowds. That meant I had to go without Gu for that long. But I survived. The worst part was the sunglasses – I had been without them for the whole race. When Sarah gave me a pair, I gladly put them on but within a mile, they were broken. I have been squinting for a week since.
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| The Irishman and I battle it out with the Africans in the final stretch. |
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| Back-to-Back for another Bill Rowan Medal |
