Day 4,128—Transitions are Hard: Reflections on the Badger V—

 

          I used to think about this a lot during long runs. How, doing the miles wouldn’t be as hard if there weren’t for the part of my run where I had to transition from the trail to the road. It is the same with my new job this year and school. I wish I could skip the transition part, but it isn’t an option. However, I am sure I will remember this year more than other years because I am making a transition.

         I will need to start getting up at 4 or earlier again soon, which I haven’t had to do in a long time. I am excited about the challenge, but I am worried about how I will manage it and not seeing my family in the morning anymore. It is nice running during the sunrise, like I did this morning. I might need to start going to bed earlier again, but it is hard when my kids aren’t asleep until 9 most nights.

The Badger Part V: What Would a Train Do?

         I thought this advice was kind of mean when he first said it, but when it got dark and I crossed a road, I started asking myself the question. I don’t remember it being confusing before, but I was keeping my light off until it was so dark I couldn’t see anything, and then I turned on my red light. There were so many people I was passing the other way, I didn’t want to blind them.

         I was expecting this 30 miles to fly by, and when I realized that I might beat my PR, I started going as fast as I could, which wasn’t that fast. I had been walking at the start of each mile, and I was hitting between 12- and 13-minute miles when I switched to running the whole time. I couldn’t get much faster than 11-minute miles. I kept doing the math, and if I finished at 100.5 or less I was going to finish under 19:35. I couldn’t remember if my PR was 19:25 or 19:35. I figured that it didn’t matter and I needed to focus on moving, but I had a hard time not being motivated by the possibility of having my fastest time since 2021! I knew it was going to be close to even get under 20 hours.

          At every aid station, I filled up my water and hydration, and I drank Coke and ginger ale. I wasn’t tired, tired, but I was worried that I was going to lose my momentum, so every opportunity I had to have some caffeine, I took it. One of the benefits of running a faster time was that I wouldn’t have to stay up all night. 20 hours would have me finishing at 2 a.m., which isn’t that late, so I wasn’t worried about burning out on caffeine like I will be if I have to stay up all night.

         I didn’t see anyone except the people going in the other direction. I also was passing 100K runners periodically, but most people at this point were quiet. I kept looking for Heath, but I hadn’t seen him yet. Once I was in the 80s, I knew that the worst was over, but my body was starting to cramp up a bit. I was no longer finishing my water and hydration between aid stations and had stopped eating completely.

         As I got into the 90s, I kept looking at my watch periodically to see if I was still able to possibly PR, but I still couldn’t say anything for sure. Especially since my max speed at this point was an 11-minute mile. I hoped that my watch was going to be off from the predicted distance of 101 miles, and I would be closer to 100 miles. If I ended up at 100 miles, I could still beat my PR time.

         Once I was in the last hour of the run, I saw Heath still moving. I don’t think he was in last place, but I admired the mental strength to be as determined as he was after 18 hours of running. After I hit 99, I stopped looking at my watch and just kept going as fast as I could. I know I wasn’t pacing that much faster, but it felt faster. I was still holding on to hope that maybe I would still get under 19:35.

                When I ran across the timing mats, I saw that I was just barely at 19:37. I talked to the race director, and he was super nice and encouraging. I felt bad that I didn’t get my PR, but if the race had been exactly 100 miles, I would have been almost right at 19:25.

         There was a long walk to my tent, so I sat down for a while and tried to drink a beer. I didn’t finish half of it before I spilled it. I stayed on a bench for 20 minutes watching people finish. I was thinking maybe Travis or the other guy, who I had been running close to, would finish any minute now, but they didn’t, and I started to shiver.

I walked as far as the restroom to stand for a while to warm up because I was shaking violently and breathing irregularly. I knew it wasn’t that cold, but I had let my body cool down enough that the temperature in the 50s was making me so cold I could barely move. Once I made it into my tent, I put my warmer around my neck and turned it on full blast. I couldn’t take a shower, but I wiped off my body thoroughly with Dude Wipes, and I went to sleep. I was so happy I would be able to sleep for at least 5-6 hours because I kept thinking that I would need to work tomorrow.

Tomorrow: The final Part of the Badger 100 and an Update on the Video