Century #9: A Valiant Attempt

I received a message from one of my Sinfonian brothers from UW-W (Roz Craney) asking if I would be interested in riding the Ironman Wisconsin route with him for his training. I figured that I would take the chance to get in one more century. I got in touch with Roz and explained to him that I may have a lot of miles, but I am not the poster child for a fast rider. He said that he was fine with that so I agreed to go with him.

I drove out to Madison to meet him at the Monona Terrace which is "ground zero" for the race. I haven't seen Roz in at least 6 years, but he looks about the same as I remember him...except for a hint of grey, but it seems we are all adding a bit of that.

The day was overcast with a noticeable wind. The clouds helped keep the temperature at a tolerable level. The plan was to do the route and add a short run at the end (which I anticipated being a bit interesting..but WHY NOT!). As it was described to me, the route started with a 14-mile stick, a 42 mile loop done twice and then ride back to the start point on the stick. It was also told that the Wisconsin route is one of the hardest in the U.S.

No problem, right?

Things started fine. I felt pretty good, but I think that was because the wind was pushing us out. Once we hit the loop, things took a turn. I'm just not sure where to start.

Perhaps it was the fact that the wind seemed to always turn to hit us in the face...
...or maybe the downpour that hit us in the middle of nowhere...
...or maybe the hills...ugh, the hills...
...or maybe the cramping that starting hitting my legs after climbing those hills...
...and this was just the FIRST loop.

We got to the spot where the second loop begins and I decided to head back. Could I have done it again? Yes. Would I have finished? It would have been painfully slow. When it comes down to it, I didn't want to hold back Roz as I was dealing with my "issues." The plan was to ride the bike path the runs alongside Lake Monona and get the final 30 miles to finish up the century and maybe meet Roz afterwards for the run.

I trudged back to the Monona Terrace at a very "leisurely" pace. Unfortunately, my killer pace could not outrace the pending storm and I got nailed a second time. At that point, I threw in the towel.

I drove back to Elkhorn and thought that I could wrap up my 30 miles there. One step out of the car and I knew that I was done. 70 miles would have to do for the day.

So I came up short on the mileage. I can still say that I rode the Ironman Wisconsin route, I was just a loop short.