Day 4,124—School Starts Today: Reflections on the Badger 100 Part I—

 

I was out of bed a little after 5, which isn’t as early as I need to get up when kids start coming back, but it is close. I am happy to be going to school today, but I don’t know what to expect. It is a classroom prep day, so I am going to try to pack items into my car for my office, but I don't have a lot of time to do that. What I would like to do is write and start editing my video for the race, but it was a beautiful morning. The air was cool and fresh, and I noticed they started tearing down the White Castle! I have taken so many pictures of it over the years, and last weekend I was thinking how when we moved in, that it was the White Castle that was open and the lot that has the Starbucks now was abandoned. I was thinking how things had flipped, and even wondered if anyone would ever tear down that White Castle. It had been sitting vacant for years now, and just like that, it was half gone this morning. I ran into Blackburn Park and enjoyed sitting outside for a moment. I felt like I was moving fast, but really I was only moving a little faster than 10s, but faster than I was moving on Sunday morning, but not by a lot.

Reflections on the Badger 1: Don’t Worry, I've Got Pictures

         I wasn’t sure if I had gotten any good pictures and videos, but I went through everything last night. I thought my stuff might be too blurry to do much with, but it didn’t look bad. I think I will be able to make a decent video after all! I got a lot of video of the pre-race, but hardly any of the after-race. I kept thinking I should have recorded a little when Travis and I ate at Burger King on Sunday, but everything seemed more difficult on Sunday, and I was mostly happy.

Friday, driving down went smoothly, and we were there with our tents up before I knew it. We met this guy, Heath, who was doing the 100, who came over and talked to us. He was a nice guy and had some interesting strategies about running. The only thing in his dropbag was socks, which I thought was a bold move.

We had been worried about parking, but the lot didn’t fill up on Friday, so it wasn’t a real concern. I lay down to read a little before 8 p.m. and started falling asleep. I went to bed soon afterward. I didn’t sleep straight through the night, but I got at least 5 hours and felt awake without caffeine at 3:30 on Saturday morning. I noticed the school buses circling the lot and loaded onto one at 4:15. There were only a couple of people on my bus, and I wondered if I should try to talk to someone on the 45-minute drive, but I felt comfortable in the continued silence.

         It was cold, and I saw a lot of people with jackets, but I kept reminding myself that I would be warm once the race started. Before the race, a guy just started talking to me to tell me I needed to have my race bib horizontal, which was on my vest. I struggled with that, and Travis showed me that part of his shoe tread was falling off. We both ran to the starting position shortly after the race director did the usual talk, and he started the countdown while a lot of runners were still getting into position. This was the biggest 100 I had done since the Tunnel Hill years ago. There were supposed to be almost 150 runners there.