RUN - As I made my way out to the run course the crowds downtown were huge. It was about 3:00pm and it was pretty hot, but I knew I would take the first 6 miles easy and then take it from there. I crossed paths with the overall winner shortly after I started my run which I thought was cool to see. The course was two-loops and started by taking us from downtown over to the campus of UW-Madison. We ran one lap around the football field that the Badger football team played on the day before. We then made our way over to a park area around the some campus buildings and just after mile 5 (and again mile 18) encountered the largest hill on the course. After running down the backside of the hill we went back into an area of town with tons of people.
We made the turn around and I was happy to be about 1/4 of the way done. I was hot and tired but overall I felt pretty good, all things considered. We followed a path through some woods around a lake and came back through the same park as before. I chatted a bit with other runners on the course which was nice, especially for someone who does the vast majority of their training alone.
As I approached downtown I finally saw Jodee for the first time all day. I was happy to see her finally and even more happy that she had a big smile on her face. I made it back into down town and could see the finish line as I made my turn to start my second loop. I stopped at the "special needs bag area" and changed my shirt. This felt as good as anything since the compression shirt I had on was starting to feel like it was squeezing like constrictor. I headed back out and felt myself starting to slow down. I knew I was ahead of any time cut-off and ahead of where i thought I'd be at this point so I didn't really care too much. Finishing was the number one objective and now that was in sight.
I tried to just stay hydrated and wouldn't have thought that having cola at the water stops would be as great as it was. I took water and some oranges as well and had my GU gels every 45 minutes or so and made my way through the last half of the course with a combination of running (okay, a jogging-type motion) and walking. The balance between the two slowly (and steadily) shifted from more running to more walking over the course of the two loop run.
The sun started going down as I made my way through the woods on the second lap and it was completely dark by the time I made my way out of the park. I saw Jodee again at about mile 23 as I made my way closer to downtown and again she was smiling which was great to see. When I got back into the downtown area, the crowds got thicker and thicker along the side of the road. I saw my dad just before I made the turn on the last long straightaway and last few blocks of the race. It was great to see a familiar face and hear his words of encouragement and to hear him say how proud he was.
The last couple of blocks seem kind of like a dream...so many people and it was so loud from all of the cheering. All of my aches, pains and fatigue vanished and I felt like I was floating on air as I came up to the big IronMan finish-line archway with my arms raised over my head.
Run Time - 5:01:12 - about what I had hoped for.
The 372 days since we registered had passed.
All of the planning, training, time, money, blood (literally), sweat and tears were all worth it.
It was done.
I made it through.
I had finished.
I was an IronMan.
No comments:
Post a Comment