The Beginning of Nothing

Photo documentary here; check in tonight for updates once I get to Verona and then either really late tomorrow or Sunday morning or whenever I get to it for during and post-race updates.

For those of you reading about NothingMan for the first time, me and a friend are doing a self-supported Ironman distance training day tomorrow in the Madison area. Since it is going to be rather chilly, we will most likely swim in a YMCA pool starting at 6AM rather than in Lake Wingra. I am concerned about starting my day in a state of hypothermia and near darkness! While the lake may still be in the upper 60's, the air temperature will only be in the 30's in the morning, and if we weren't doing a full Ironman, that would be fine, but I think the pool will be the better option.

We'll bike from Wingra Park, making our way to the IMWI bike course and completing that, ending back at Wingra Park. I will have all my bike nutrition with me on the bike at the start, but will need to stop periodically for water, since I'm using concentrated Infinit.

For the run, Jostein (my NothingMan teammate? Not sure what to call him except crazy like me) measured out a loop in Wingra Park, that we will complete 59 times in order to achieve the marathon distance. It's on grass, so that will be really nice. He bought us candy necklaces so that we can eat one "bead" each lap to keep track of where we are. Jostein will finish before me, so it will be interesting to see if I decide to go the full distance or not. Something tells me I will, because, well, I should.

Jostein is even nuttier than me. He's a fireman, and will be driving up north late tonight, getting in around midnight or so. Hopefully he can crash for 4 hours before we start the day!

My car is packed up except for the coolers that will hold my bike and run nutrition (all liquid) and assorted other drinks I will need today through Sunday.

This is the first time ever that I am doing an Ironman that I am not completely sure I can finish, but that's part of the fun, isn't it? I messed up my recovery from IMLP somewhat, not to mention my mental state hasn't been ideal lately. But, I have had some good to great training rides and runs since IMLP, and I have to believe I have the endurance to go the distance. We won't be racing at all; Jostein is much faster than me, but we will mostly stick together through the bike.

We had extended an invitation to people via Slowtwitch to come join us to swim, bike or run with us or just watch, but it looks like that isn't happening, which I guess makes this even a bit more hardcore. So it's just me and Jostein toughing it out for a day.

OK, I need to shower and get driving so that I can stretch and relax for the rest of the day. Good thing I've been sleeping a ton this week, since I doubt I will sleep too well tonight, even though I truly don't feel the usual pre-Ironman excitement.

Oh--there will be no online coverage, no timing chips, no official photographer, in the spirit of "nothing." Like I said, whatever pics we get (I'm pretty good at conning strangers into taking pics) I'll post up and update my blog, but that's about it. We're not doing this as a stunt or for publicity or anything.

Peace out until Verona!