Martha's Vineyard Training Camp Complete

Two weeks- Wednesday, June 29 through Wednesday, July 13- had been circled on the calendar for a long time.  Our annual family vacation would be the first 15+ hour weeks needed for the last third of Iron Day training.  Lots of things could have gone wrong- weather could have stunk, body could have started to break down, might even have over-indulged one or two nights.

Everything, however, was perfect. 

Best part of all was seeing old friends and making new ones along the way.  Here's how the exercise broke down:

• Almost 5 miles of swimming (1.8, .5, 2.0, .5) over 3 hours
• 347 miles of biking (52, 70, 34, 101, 47, 43) over 20+ hours
• 71 miles of running (9, 13, 5/after 70 mile bike, 8, 16, 3/after 101 bike, 17) over 10.5 hours

Still 5+ more weeks of training to go, but I've mentally switched gears.  Doubts will linger until the goal is actually reached, but it's in sight.  Lots of hard work and fun times ahead- focus is overtaking fear.

You already met John Phillips and Libby Mitchell in a previous post- here are some of the other folks I'm indebted to as well:

I first met Jim Joyce a year ago.  We connected riding with a group of 3-4 other guys.  I said I was thinking about riding a century the next weekend and asked if anyone was interested in joining in.  Jim raised his hand.  So we did it- rode 100 miles in under six hours- you can learn a lot about someone when you're with them for six hours.  He and his wife bought a house on the Vineyard a while back and after doing the Fairfield County to MV back and forth they took the plunge and moved full time to the Vineyard.  Smart people.  Jim and I have stayed in touch- I rode with him in April on MV and he came out to the Berkshires with a buddy to train for the 148 mile Harpoon B to B ride.   He was with me for four of the six rides this time around including our second annual MV Century.  His 50th birthday is Sunday, July 31 and he's celebrating in style- on the Champs Elysees with his wife and the Tour de France riders on their last laps.

Mile 52 of the Vineyard Century.  Jim Joyce, Brooks and the return of Tim Bock.  He and his wife Karen came out to Vineyard for some relaxation and Pan Mass training.

Jim and Tim at the Aquinnah cliffs

Tim and Brooks after 101 miles (plus three more running)

Alex from Chilmark and New Jersey, Brooks, Jim and John on a Sunday morning ride

Brooks with Nancy from Chilmark and New Canaan.  Nancy is a Pan Mass regular who logs a ton of Up Island miles every summer.

I first met Booth Kyle in 1994.  He had just graduated from Conn College and I was in year two of career in secondary school admissions.  Booth was working in admissions at Brooks School then moved on to Deerfield before taking over as Director of Admission at Lakeside School in Seattle two years ago.  We hadn't seen each other in a while- that is until his parents bought the house next door on Martha's Vineyard.  Since then, we've been fortunate to cross paths with his family most summers.  Booth's longtime passion is crew but he's got two goals for this fall.  First, he'll run the Portland, OR marathon in early October and then join a masters boat at the Head of the Charles at the end of the month.  Booth pulled me through the last 9 miles of a 16 mile run.

Booth and Brooks

Best of all, when we returned to Williamstown, Chas was there to greet us.  He was in town with daughter, Walker, who was in a Williams lacrosse camp.  We got in a 6 mile run on Thursday morning, July 14.

Chas and Brooks