WIBA 2008: Part 3

On Saturday, before the yellow shorts made their special appearance in Lake Mendota, I went for an ACTUAL swim. Here are 2 photos from James that show Sarah and I getting back from a 800 - 1000 meter open water swim:

The next day (Sunday), the WIBA group met up for one final workout: a run along the IM WI run course. Here’s the group (and a few more showed up just after we snapped the photo):

Pharmie’s squatting in white.
I’m giving love to Rural Girl on the far left.

The night before, some jerk started teasing Stu about his muffin top. For the record, Stu has no muffin top (just the slightest bit of love handles). When I’m Stu’s age (that’s not meant to be insulting), I’d LOVE to have his mid-section! So when we got to the Sunday morning run, someone had brought a little bag with Stu’s name on it. The bag contained a muffin. Jerks. Stu asked for a photo with him, his muffin, me, and my short yellow shorts:

Then Robby gave some final advice about the run course:

We were all ready to go. Here’s a little video I took of everyone on their way out:

There were 2 guys that went out faster than us, and I was in the next group of 5 guys. We did one loop on the run course: 13.1 miles. Here’s the group I ran with:

Coach Dan, Art, Stu, and Charlie

Stu made us stop at the highest point on the run for a quick photo:

A few miles later, while running down State Street, we heard something in the shadows:

“Who’s there?... It’s too bright. I can’t see...”


“Oh, it’s James! Smile!”

That’s right folks: my shirt had been off for a few miles because it was getting pretty warm. All I was wearing was my “bowl full of sunshine.” And much to Pharmie’s chagrin, they held up GREAT for 13 miles! No chafing! No rubbing! I think I’ll wear these shorts on runs more often! Pharmie would have loved for the shorts to have rubbed me raw somewhere, so I’d have to say “Oh jeez, I guess I can’t wear them for runs anymore.” But no! As Tony the Tiger says, THEY’RE GRRRRREAT!

With a few miles left in the run, Art’s nipples were rubbing. He asked if it was uncouth to borrow someone else’s nipple band-aids. Stu gave Art his nipple-aids, and Art put them on without breaking stride:

We ran most of the run around 8:15 pace, but then we picked it up in the last few miles to finish the 12.75 mile run near 8 min/mile pace. It was an easy pace for me, and Charlie even remarked once, "Dang it Steve, I can't even hear you breathe! You aren't working at all, are you?" We got back, and one of the guys I ran with told everyone “Holy cow, Steve’s a beast!” I had apparently picked up the pace quite a bit and brought Charlie and Art back to the Terrace where we finished. Wil heard the “beast” remark, combined it with the “magnificent” comments from the wet shorts the day before, and the rest of the day I was known as “Steve the Magnificent Beast.” Sweet. I’ll take it.

Pharmie came back from a slightly shorter run, we got back to the hotel, showered, packed up, and headed to our last stop of the day: Endurance House (a tri store). WIBA hosted a bike clinic just outside of Endurance House. Here’s a photo of Chris talking over some derailleur issues:

We hung out with some old and new friends for a while, gave lots of hugs, said our good-byes, and took off for home. We had a great weekend and got in some great workouts! Big thanks to Wil, Robby B, Evotri, James (for the photos!), and everyone else who made it such a fun event (for the 3rd year in a row)!

One and a half weeks until Pharmie and I compete in the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon at Lake Nokomis!