I've concluded that loud country music is more painful than the crotch pain from 120 miles on a bike. After running a trail half-marathon. All on two hours of sleep.
So Ironman Louisville is in four weeks (now two). This meant I had two weekends' worth of hard training before having to taper. What better way to spend this one than beating myself to a pulp? As it happened, Planet Adventure put together the perfect hard training weekend and I was able to take advantage of it. Paula and I were scheduled to work timing for a 24-hour bike ride at the Subaru test track (how many times can you ride the two-mile loop in 24 hours?), which didn't start until noon. This meant we could also participate in the Planet Adventure trail run that morning before heading up to Subaru.
Saturday's alarm went off at 5:45am, giving us plenty of time to have a good breakfast, make sure the car was loaded up, stop at Starbucks for some caffeine, and get to the race site in time to relax and get ready to run. The Eagle Creek trail half- and full-marathon is a much-anticipated race, and drew a sold-out crowd. I planned on doing the half, and Paula signed on for the quarter-marathon (~ 6.5 miles). The course is more challenging than many, with lots of ups and downs and a fair number of fallen limbs to step over.
The day was perfect for running, with cloud cover that kept the temperatures down and the humidity high. No one minded the humidity, since we were having outrageously cool temps for August. Paula won her age group and I placed second in mine (out of seven). Surprising since I had an unusually slow day (2:49:01), but I guess everyone in the female 50-54 group was feeling laid-back that day.
Paula finished up, then rode with James (of Planet Adventure) up to the Subaru test track at Lafayette, to start getting the timing set up for the 24-hour bike ride. After I finished running, I headed directly there and helped them finish getting ready. The count-down clock was turned on at noon, and all the riders took off.
After making sure everyone's chip was reading and recording properly, Paula and I signed up to ride in the "solo female" division. This event is primarily made up of teams who ride the full 24-hours, taking turns. There was only one woman signed up for the female solo category, so we were both guaranteed to place in the top three. I like those odds! Around 1pm I took off and did a few laps, and got my legs under me.
Another Planet Adventure staffer showed up and relieved James, and Brian was there with us until midnight. The track was dimly lit, and cyclists had to have some sort of headlamp and tail-light, but it was pretty easy to see everyone. By the time it got dark, riders were spread out with only a couple clumps. The wind finally died down and made for some very pleasant riding. Paula and I took turns, and I managed to rack up 36 laps before calling it quits around 11pm. At this point the other solo female had 43 laps, but she had called it day and turned in her chip. Cool! I should win this thing, since my goal was to complete 50 laps. The way she had cranked out those 43 laps had convinced me she was going to leave me in her dust, so I was happy to find out she'd done all she was going to do.
At midnight, Brian went to join his family at a local hotel and get some sleep, and I crawled into the back of the car and slept until 2am. When I relieved Paula, she filled me in on some issues that were going on, then she went to get some rest. There were a couple of chips that were going completely wonky, registering laps that didn't exist and ridiculously fast laps. I had to pay close attention and make sure everyone's chip was registering as they crossed the start line, and delete all of the extraneous entries being generated by the wonky chips. I actually didn't mind, as this forced me to stay awake and alert.
Working 24-hour events is very interesting. The dynamics change as the hours go by, and people get more and more relaxed. Even the hyper-competitive types start to mellow out by 3am. Everyone was camped out in the infield of the track, and teams had tents and congregating areas set up. Some riders didn't even show up to the track until midnight or later, whenever their shifts began. The event was a fundraiser for CASA, an Indiana organization that helps abused and neglected children, and Subaru is a major supporter of that group. The organizers did a wonderful job keeping riders fed, with a food tent that never closed and always had plenty of good things to eat and drink. They catered dinner, breakfast, and lunch from local restaurants, and it was great to have real food to eat.
Overnight was quiet, with a steady stream of riders switching out with teammates, and three very determined male solo riders going non-stop. Those guys would crank out 30-40 miles, take a 30-minute break, then go right back and do another 30-40 miles. Crazy. Many people were sleeping, but that didn't dampen the enthusiasm of those who were up and riding or supporting the riders.
Paula relieved me around 5:30am, and I was back out on the track by 5:45. It was great to ride at sunrise, free of the crazy winds that had blown us around Saturday afternoon. I clinched my victory (did the eight laps needed to get me to 44 laps), then Paula took a turn. Finally, around 7:30am, I reached my goal of 50 laps. Hmmm, Ironman is 56 laps (112 miles), surely I can get that? Reached that goal with a little over two hours to go, then took a break. Decided I wanted to get 60 laps under my belt before calling it quits, so went out and did my last four. By now the sun had fully risen and the wind was picking up. I was extremely tired even though I felt great, and got sick of fighting the wind all the way down the first half of the track. I had hoped to possibly break 60 by at least a couple of laps, but was just too tired to keep working against the wind. My legs felt good but heavy, and mentally I was very happy with my 60 and ready to call it good.
The countdown clock finally hit zero, there was a quick awards ceremony, and I was presented with a nice plaque for first place solo female. The winning solo male had some crazy number like 150 laps, and the winning teams were in the 365 mile range. We then got busy packing up all our gear. Down came the start/finish line, the clock got put away, all our timing stuff packed up and stowed, all the cables coiled, speakers put away, trailer loaded. By 1:30pm, the track was clear of tents, mobile homes, and riders, and looking very quiet. We were grateful for the relatively short ride home (< 1 hour), and decided to stop at Texas Roadhouse for takeout steak...
...and were bombarded with outrageously loud bad country music. "I love my truck and my ex ran over my dog" kind of country music. Loud enough we had to use our outside voices to order our food. And it was loud outside too, with nowhere to go to get away from it. After an excruciating 15-minute wait, our food was finally ready. I asked the employee how she listened to that all day without shooting anybody. She laughed and said she got used to it. I gave her my condolences.
And yes, loud country music truly is more miserable than any amount of bike-riding-induced crotch pain and sleep deprivation.
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