WHO KNEW?

I just realized that I never mentioned my training in Friday’s post. I ran a moderately paced 6 miles before work. Saturday I met Evan at the trails near my house for a nice, relatively bug-free, 2 hour run. Those 15 miles gave me 64 for the week. I plan on extended my cutback “week” through Tuesday or Wednesday, probably dropping into the 50-55 mile range before ramping back up.

Meanwhile, other members of my training group were running Lumberjack Days. Jenna won the women’s 10-mile in 58:44. Jim won the 60-64 age-group in 66:03. Joyce was the second woman in the 5k in 18:09.

Since those guys raced on Saturday, it meant Sunday’s practice was rather lonely. It ended up being me and a bunch of triathletes, who were doing a slightly different workout. Oh well, you can’t always rely on others during a race - gotta be able to push the pace yourself. So I ended up running 3 x 2 “miles” by myself in 12:53, 12:51, 12:51. If I’m not fast, I’m at least consistent.

Hmm, I barely mentioned the Nude Mile and now I’m getting a bunch of requests for more information. Who knew nudity on the web would be so popular? It may come as no surprise that alcohol was involved before partaking in said event. It occurred the evening after the first home track meet – usually in April.

Historically, there’d be a party until around midnight, then people would get naked and haul ass down Water Street, which has about 12 bars in a 2-block stretch. People would run down the street once and then off into the “sunset.” Of course, there were spectators, but mainly just those who happened to be walking from bar to bar.

Somewhere along the way things change in 1993, the first year I ran the race. Word got out that the Nude Mile was going to take place at midnight. So of course, the streets were packed with spectators; think of a mountain stage of the Tour de France or of Wellesley, along the Boston course and you’ll have an idea of what the street looked like. And of course we didn’t just run by once and call it a night. We ran back-and-forth like 4-6 times. Remember this is mid-April. In Wisconsin. At midnight. I don’t remember the temperature, but I remember it being cold.

That night is still one of the top-3 rushes I’ve ever experienced from running. Plus the t-shirts were cool. In addition to the one pictured below, there’s one with a caricature of the 2 old guys from Bartels and James, running naked. There privates are covered by the finish banner.

Ahhh, to be in college again…

Note: the photo will have to wait, as blogger is sucking right now.

Of course congratulations go out to Floyd Landis (I almost typed Lloyd Flandis) for his tour victory. It’ll be interesting to see what happens after his hip surgery. Today’s quote of the day is for Floyd (or Lloyd);

“It’s at the borders of pain and suffering that the men are separated from the boys.” – Emil Zatopek