A Little Post Between Posts: Post Ironman Run#1 (As told by Paul Harvey)

That's a lot of "posts." I might need a "post-" hole digger... cha cha cha!  Thank you... I'll be here all night!

When I was a kid, I remember driving in the car with my father listening to the news and sports on AM radio with him. In between segments, this character would come on and tell stories in dramatic fashion. He would tell part of a story—often of an important politician, inventor, scientist, or popular cultural icon. The stories were always biographical in nature, and always had a surprising ending that would give away the character at the very end and their significant historical contribution. This man's name was Paul Harvey. If you are unfamiliar with him, do yourself a favor and check him out on Youtube.

Anyway, I called up my esteemed colleague, Chris, who teaches in the theater program, to see if he would like to go out for a run this afternoon. He was down. Right after lunch, we decided we would get together at three o'clock, and do between three and nine miles.

My plan for today was to take it nice and easy and to try to reintroduce my legs to the wonderful world of running. I was thinking a 10k might be nice.

And now... as Paul Harvey would say, here is "the rest of the story:" (most effective if read with Paul Harvey's voice in your head)


So Mark met Chris on that incredibly hot fall day back in September—outside of the Provost's office—in front of the quad—for his first post-ironman run, a run that he had been looking forward to for two weeks following his triumphant first attempt at his first iron distance event. An event whose participants run a marathon after swimming 2.4 miles, and bicycling 112 miles.

That's right.

You heard me right.

 A combined 114.4 miles by sea and bike before actually running a marathon—a distance of 26.2 miles

Some people call these folks... crazy. (Pause) Excessive.  (Pause) Insane. 


For others, it's a lifestyle. Mark was part of that lifestyle now. A newbie Ironman, excited to get back to some sort of training regiment, he looked forward to his run later that afternoon.

Little did either of them know, that in one day, the temperature had soared more than twenty degrees warmer that it had been the previous day—the day that Mark initially wanted to get out and do his first post-Ironman run. That's right... twenty degrees.

It had gone from a mild, and comfortable 65 degrees, to an incredibly humid 87 degrees. And, little did they know, with their excitement about getting out and running together the first time (and self-induced testosterone driven male ego,) that the would go out too fast, and the humidity would beat them down like a gazelle in the midday sun of the Serengeti, chased by a ferocious, hungry lion. Some 32 minutes into the run, Mark looked at Chris, plainly grabbing his sides now, and suffering from dehydration for not having anticipated the sweltering heat, and apologized for having to stop. It seemed as if Mark was tired. Real Tired. As they walked the rest of the way back, talking, Mark ensured Chris that he was in much better shape than he had showcased today. Chris looked back at Mark and said, "I thought we went out a little fast..." 


Mark got back into his office and, feeling completely dejected,  put the route into his computer as he always did, to figure out the mileage and pace. At first, Mark thought there must be some mistake, as the numbers did not quite make sense. He then cleared the entire page and put the route back in to figure out mileage and pace once more. 


As it turned out, this route, which saw nearly 650 feet of elevation gain over the course of a half a mile, ended up being much faster than Mark and Chris could have anticipated. 


You see... Mark is an average runner at best, and although their 7:40 splits on that day were only over the course of three miles, they ended being some of the most encouraging, and difficult three miles of Mark's life. 

 That's all I got....

Glad I am still alive. It took me a bit to get my heart rate back down. How long will this post-Ironman fatigue last?  Please don't answer that.

HELMET REVIEW UPDATE: Working on it.... it's gonna be super-cool. Well, that's a lot of pressure now, isn't it?  Okay.... maybe just cool. Okay... it will be a decent review on a really AWESOME helmet!