When approaching a race that will carry me through the night and keep me on my feet for 24 hours for the first time, it almost goes without saying, I’m a little nervous. At the point in the longest I’ve ever raced for is 13 hours 15 minutes. Trying to add 10 hours and 45 minutes to that seems insurmountable right now. But I think that’s only because I haven’t done it yet.

Like everything in triathlon I decided to learn by doing.

My first test was to getup an hour earlier before our morning swim at 5 and get a run in. This worked really well, I was up at 3:30 and running at 4, but as it was summer in Wisconsin, the sun was making an appearance about 4:30. Which, while beautiful, didn’t really give me much of a change to get the “in the dark” running I was looking for.

The second attempt went quite well also. Decided to do a trainer ride for 90 minutes at 10:30 then a 4 mile run. Turns out my neighborhood has a bunch of street lights though, so again I wasn’t really in the dark.

The third push was another early morning run, starting at 3:00 this time, and boy was it an eventful one.

Was feeling great, it was quite peaceful out and I enjoyed watching the lightening bugs floating about. In the back of my mind though, was a run at a friend’s house from 2 weeks ago where we came across a bear crossing the road.

So as I’m watching the lightening bugs, I notice two large ones, not moving at all and a bit dimmer, attached to a very large, somehow blacker shadow off to the side of the road reflecting my headlamp back at me.

I stopped dead in my tracks, I was on a road I’ve been down many times, the last time was only 22 hours prior. There are 2 pastures separated by a little woods with a creek running through. These pastures almost never have cattle in them, usually just some deer. With the creek making a bit of noise I can’t hear anything other than my heart pounding as I slowly start walking backwards. I flicked my cellphone flashlight on, but can’t quite make out what I’m looking at. So I continue to walk backwards not wanting to turnaround, listening intently for any clue as to what I’ve run across.

When I made it home I had a little drive to get to the pond for a swim, so I decided to head back to that field, feeling much safer in a vehicle. I found these cows in the picture. That big guy next to the fence was still on exactly the same place.

Absolutely nothing in the world will make you feel more awake and alert at 3:40 AM than thinking you’ve come face to face with a bear, by yourself, in the dark, miles from home.

For my final attempt, staying up all night seemed like the best simulation for a race. Now, to cover about 8 hours of dark, it turns out you need to pass the time doing something. So this time I had a training buddy join in and we stayed up through the night switching between 45 minute runs and bike rides on the trainer. Started out on the hour every hour until it was time to get to the pond for a 5am swim. This went amazingly well, had no issues staying up at all, at the time. As soon as my heart rate came down though, crash city.

So here we are now, 14 days from the race, and ready to rock and roll.