Well, it's been a while since I've checked in. It's safe to say that there's a strong inverse relationship between time spent training and time available for blogging. Sparing many of the details, here's a quick recap of July by week.
Week of July 5th:
Relatively light workouts through the week, but the weekend featured my first century ride - 100 miles. Marita had mentioned it to me a few weeks before. It was the annual Bike-a-Thon ride for the American Cancer Society. We had a great plan. The ride started in at the base of the Ben Franklin Bridge in Philadelphia and would take us all the way to Ocean City, NJ where Joan, John and Marita's fiance Brian would meet us. I signed up for the ride and Joan started looking into hotels. All was well until I looked at the route map. The ride didn't actually go to the shore. In fact, it ended in Buena, NJ... in the middle of nowhere.
So, our weekend at the shore cancelled, we did the ride anyway. We met up with Mark Kotarski of Kotarski Endurance Training downtown. A large group ride with hundreds of riders moves a lot like a river. If the course is wide then the current moves fairly slowly, but once the banks narrow everything speeds up. This makes riding with two other people rather challenging. You're dodging the racers and trying not to hit the people who just took the bike out of the garage for the first time in a year. The spectrum is amazing. Crossing the bridge and moving through Cherry Hill was easy, but once we turned off the highways and hit the city roads things got dicey. I was a few lengths back from Marita barreling down the bumpy road elbow-to-elbow with other riders. Suddenly, one of my two bottles shot of the bike.
We were moving too fast to stop, and it would have caused a huge pile-up. Not worth it for a Gatorade which I could pick up at the first rest stop and replace. Not a quarter mile later my second bottle got shot off the bike. This was one of my personal bottles and only nutrition bottle left, so I had to pull over, run back and pick it up. I called in vain to Marita who was trying to stay with Mark, but she didn't hear. I grabbed the bottle, hopped back on and tried to catch up. Another rough patch of road and the bottle flew out again. This was going to be a long day.
Luckily, Marita and Mark realized I wasn't with them and stopped at the first rest stop. We re-grouped and hit up the aid tables. It was then that we realized there was no sport drink for anyone, anywhere on the course. In fact, the staffers seemed a bit taken aback that we even asked where it was. I don't know, maybe it was the information distributed before the race describing what they'd have. So, I was down to three quarters of a bottle with 85 miles left to go. Not good. There was plenty of food, so we got some bananas, cookies and other snacks. We'd survive.
The route was still pretty packed until the second aid station at mile 25. After that it opened up a bit, and I got to experience the magic of a pace line. At it's largest we had two lines of 9 riders each moving along just under 25mph. The three of us hung in the back as no one up front wanted to peel off. We wouldn't complain. The group got broken up at the next aid station and then the hot slog began. There's not much else to report on. Right before Mile 60 the century riders turn left and everyone else goes on to finish. There weren't many people turning with us.
The last 40 weren't bad, but it was lonely out there. There was only one aid station left, and it didn't have much. By the time we made it back and finished it was pushing 90 degrees, and we were ready to be done. We went to the aid tent just in time to find out that they'd given away all of their water. Apparently, they didn't think keeping water for the 100 milers was a good idea. At least they didn't give our food away. Marita and I quickly found my wonderful wife Joan and left. We felt bad not finding Mark again, but the idea of staying any longer wasn't appealing.
In summary, we did it and that's about it. There are no pictures to document the state we were in afterwards.
Week of July 12th:
This was a big training week coming off my century ride, and it was capped off by the 20 in 24 relay. This was team Just For Fun's second year and my first. Of course it was my training partner that talked me into this. The relay started at 10:00 on Saturday and went for 24 hours. The race consisted of multiple divisions that run together in the event and even some races that start in the middle of the night. Each lap was 8.5 miles in length, and our team of 5 was signed on to run 3 laps each. We made our camp on the beautiful banks of the Schuylkill River near Waterworks restaurant. I was running the anchor leg, so I had some time to kill before my first lap. I was worried about running last because the team had placed 3rd last year. I made it well known that if I was left running with money on the line that'd I'd probably buckle. Luckily for us the popularity of the race had grown, and there was some serious competition this year. By the time I toed the transition area start line for our lap 5, the team of Bucknell alumni runners was starting lap 6. No pressure for us.
We got through the first cycle, and the day finally started to cool off for us. Run, eat, rest and repeat. Lap 2 got underway for me around 7:30. About a mile into that loop I heard some footsteps closing in on me. I looked over my shoulder and was relieved to see that it was just someone out for a weekend jog. He turned out to be a good pace setter though which really helped me through lap 2. It also turns out he had a few Ironman races to his credit, so we found something to talk about as we ran. I finished that leg at a 7:44/mi pace which was 9 seconds/mi faster than my first lap. As soon as I finished I made sure to get some food, change and get in the tent. It was about 9:00 PM when I got in the tent, and I set my alarm for midnight. Given our paces, that would give me an hour to get ready before my last lap. I finally headed out a little after 1:00 AM. Everyone else on our team was asleep when I left. That last lap was hard, and I just couldn't get going. I finished at an 8:30 pace, which all-in-all isn't bad 14 hours into a race, running alone in the dark through Philly.
I finished, and the team was there to greet me. We took our post-race team photo and called it a day. I dropped off two of our members and then got Marita back home. My day ended around 4:00 AM.
Week of July 19th:
Another tough training week with only a little rest on Monday. The week was also the hottest so far this summer. The heat index was running at over 100 just about everyday. The beginning of the week was fine. It was merely a matter of dealing with the heat. I didn't actually mind it much, because there's not much I can do about the weather on race day, so I might as well train in whatever I have facing me. It wasn't until Thursday that things took a bad turn.
I started the morning meeting the group in Valley Forge, but I turned around about a mile into the run with some stomach issues. I just wasn't feeling well that morning. I made a plan to come back that evening. I went back after work and started running around 7:00. It was still pushing 100 degrees. I was only a few miles in and off trail by the river when I got the most horrible sting I've ever experienced. I didn't see the culprit, but I know it wasn't your typical bee. My right knee swelled up, and it became hard to run. There wasn't much choice but to push on. However, between the heat and this new obstacle my run quickly turned into a slog through the woods. I finally made it out and finished the run along the main trails of the park. By then the sun had gone down, and I felt a refreshing breeze cooling me off. I still had to walk a lot of the uphills, and I couldn't really get into a rhythm. I made it back to the truck and checked the temperature. It was down to 94.
Friday was a swim, but nothing too strenuous because I knew the next day would be big. Marita and I wanted to get a long ride in on Saturday. I came up with a ride that would allow us to pass my truck a few times. This way we could re-stock on food, drinks or whatever else we needed along the way. It also allowed us an out in case things just got too bad in the heat.
We got some good hills in and a little over 50 miles when we decided it was best to rack the bikes and run a little. I wanted to ride some more but still wasn't feeling well. I didn't like the prospect of heading back out on the open roads alone and a bit out of it. I was pretty spent and the idea of riding another hour or two alone didn't sound appealing or all too safe. Marita convinced me to run with her instead and then call it a day. We ran 4 miles, and it was painful. I was done. I can't remember feeling so spent before. By the end of the run I could barely stand and wasn't talking much. I was pretty much out of it and all I could think of was how I would have been riding in that condition. Running was at least the safer option given the circumstances.
I thought it would pass in a few hours after getting some food in me, but this was the onset of the longest, most stressful week yet.
