Epic Camp Madison

12 athletes. 5 hotel rooms. 2 (or 3) workouts. Nearly 100,000 calories burned. At least 100,000 eaten!

That pretty much sums up my first IM Epic Camp.

We had 9 athletes from Des Moines, 2 from Mason City, and 1 from Ames (me). I knew 2 of the DM athletes previously, but the rest were all new to me. Most were IronVeterans, but there were a few IM newbies.

I was actually a little scared for the trip. My longest ride so far had only been a couple of 50-55 mile rides, and those had been on the flat Iowa roads. And my runs had been going okay, but not great. Truth be told, I was a little worried that I was really unprepared for not only the race, but even the training weekend. Then I had the bit of apprehension that goes along with going away for a weekend with a bunch of people I didn't know much about except for the fact that they were mostly all a lot faster than me in biking and running.

With gas prices where they are, I opted to ride up to Madison with someone else. Of course, I'd never met them before Friday, but Rich and Jess turned out to be great people and I felt much more at ease once we were on our way. I also discovered through Jess that she and one other woman were pretty compatible speed-wise with me.

After arriving in Madison, I met the rest of the group and we headed down to State Street in search of a grocery store and some dinner. This was my first look around the downtown area of Madison - where the hub of activity of for the weekend will be. It reminded me of a cross between Iowa City and Berkeley, California. As we walked through the ped mall, the veterans gave a running commentary of landmarks and points of interest that might be useful on the IM weekend. As usually occurs in a large group, it took forever to decide on a place for dinner, but we finally settled on none other than a pizza joint. It was the first of many meals that we would share. I knew I was going to like this group when the unanimous decision was made to head to Maggie Moo's for ice cream after the pizza!

The main topic of discussion since arriving in Madison had been the weather. Although this spring in Iowa has been uncommonly hot, we were not meant to enjoy any amount of heat on this weekend. The forecast was actually for rain and temps in the 40's and 50's all weekend long. Not exactly what I (or any of us, for that matter) would have liked to see. Especially as we looked forward to a long ride on Saturday morning. After ice cream and some swapping of clothes among the group members until everyone was confident of staying remotely warm on the ride, we all glued our eyes to the weather channel and hoped for the best. The first group was to leave the hotel at 5:30am to ride the whole course, including 2 loops of the bike course. The second group (mine) was to leave at 7:30 to meet the first group for one lap of the course. We all awoke to rain and 45 degrees. Everyone decided to wait until at least 8am, then we were going out for the ride, no matter the weather. At 8am, we met in the lobby and the rain had stopped, but the cold temps remained. Instead of riding out to the loops and just doing one loop, we opted to instead drive to the loops and do two loops. Those who wanted to ride the out and back could do so at the end of the day. Since the loops are the most technical part of the course, this worked out great for the newbies especially.

Wearing everything I could to keep warm, we headed out on the very hilly course. I rode with Terri, Terri's dad Jerry, and Jess. Jerry had done IM Moo in 2004, but we still were slaves to the route map and directions to make our way around the 44 mile loop. The hills were pretty intense right off the bat, but with fresh legs, they were very doable. As we made our way into Mt. Horab, I started to realize exactly what I had gotten myself into. This route demands a great deal of respect throughout the race. Going too hard on lap one would almost guarantee that you'd never survive the second lap AND a marathon. It is a beautiful course that flows in and out of towns and past some amazing old farms and brand new residential developments. There is no shortage of dairy cattle along the route, so you'll be sure to never forget that you are in Wisconsin.

Near the end of the first loop, the sun begain to peek through the clouds and I started to cook! We stopped at the cars to eat and remove some layers of clothing. I ended up heading out on the second loop with just a short sleeve jersey and shorts! It really turned out to be a great day for riding. The second loop was so much better than the first. I knew the route without checking the map all the time and I could just concentrate on riding and the more technical aspects of the course. I really enjoyed the ride for the second 40 miles. And my nutrition was working well and everything felt good. I had previously decided to just do the two loops and call it a day, but (thankfully) I really felt like I could have made the out and back without any problem. But, I stopped after 85 miles. Better to be a bit conservative now, than regret not sticking with my initial plan. Plus, I had a half marathon to run in the morning!!

After we'd all completed our rides and had a shower, we headed out to our reservations at Bellini Italian Resturant. It was really quite funny to see this big group of 12 skinny athletes sit down at the table and literally inhale everything within a 3 foot radius of the table. If it wasn't bolted to the floor, we ate it. The waiters got a great workout bringing out basket after basket of bread. Then the table went silent after the dinners arrived. No one spoke for about 10 minutes while we stuffed ourselves with calories. After cleaning our plates, no one batted an eye when someone suggested we return to the ice cream parlor for the second night!

Sunday morning was tons better weather-wise. No rain, but still plenty chilly. All but three brave men decided against a swim in Lake Monona. But we all did go down to the lakefront and had a "guided" walk-through of the events and landmarks of the IM morning. After the guys had finished their swim, we all took off along the run course. The course is great and winds through campus, around the interior of Camp Randall stadium, and then along Lake Mendota, finally coming to a trunaround on State Street (with the capitol building in view). Then it's back roughly the same way back to downtown (basically returning to the capitol building again). That is one loop for about 13.1 miles, then repeat for the full marathon. We "only" did one loop, but we all felt great when we were done! Great, but ready to hit the showers!

Then it was off to breakfast - one more meal as we headed out of town. Our poor waitress at Perkins did a great job of bringing us almost one of everything on the menu. Terri, sitting next to me, ordered eggs, hash browns, wheat toast, and a side of french toast! And she weighs at least 20# less than me!

I was a bit nervous going into this weekend. I was pretty afraid that it would be a good indication of just how little training I had done and how painful the actual race would be for me. However, I feel so much better having seen the sights, tackled the bike course, and navigating the run! I feel like I've got a lot left to do to prepare, but this whole IM thing is within reach! I can't wait for September 10!