Postrun Days 1 through 4, The Aftermath

I haven’t had a full night’s sleep yet and wake up multiple times throughout the night due the the achiness still prevalent in the ankles and legs. I also can’t sit for too long at work or on the couch as the legs get very restless. The ankles are swollen again, but the acute pain is thankfully all gone. It will probably all come back this weekend when I attempt the single day Ice Age Trail 50, but I think I can make it through that. My left foot pinky toe is healing, but is probably the biggest nuisance right now as it makes each step uncomfortable.

With everyone’s support around the state I have far exceeded my 4 primary goals of the run. To remind you they were:

Raise awareness: Tom Held of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal, Anna Marie of the Janesville Gazzette, Chris Kosterman of UW Oshkosh trying to get a story into WI Trails, Joe Patenuede of Silent Sports, Kevin Naze of Algoma and other reporters I can’t remember sitting here at my desk has really helped let people know there is a great trail here in Wisconsin to enjoy. The blog (updated and created by Tim Goihl) was sent out and followed by so many people. That alone encouraged me to continue until it just wasn’t possible to go another step. Fortunately we never reached that point. Sorry for not being able to list everyone, but thanks to you all.

Raise funds: I have been overwhelmed with the response here. Between family, friends, work and trail supporters we have been able to raise over $15,000 so far and I suspect we will get closer to $20,000 before we are done.

Get runners out: Early on there was Jeff Allen, Bob Rusch, Tom Bunk and Robert Wehner to run with me. Starting on Thursday day #13 (the rain day) I had Tim Goihl and Peter Wadsack join me and for every day after that there was always someone there for part of the day. Peter wins the award of being my most frequent visitor and I thank him for that. Of course my parents didn’t run with me but they were out there cheering me on very frequently as I came through Dane County and as I finished the last 3 days, so I heartfelt thanks to them also. Along the way I also came across runners that happed to hear about my run and came out to keep me company. Two ran further than they ever had before (Matt Frank a friend from Madison and Kevin ? a new friend from West Bend area). The ultrarunning community is simply a super group.

Get new IAP&T members: I know of a few people that decided to join the foundation and I think that is great since it will mean a lifetime of enjoyment if they can keep it up and get involved.

The facts as they stand right now are:

• 1079 miles
• 248 hours
• 4.35 miles per hour
• 3470 calories per day average (max 4550)
• 48.5 miles per day
• Got up at 5:30 each day
• Started running between 6:30 and 7:30
• Rotated 5 pairs of shoes

If anyone has any pictures or video they took of the run please send them to me if you have the time. If you live in the Madison area I could come by and download them to my computer or thumb drive. Otherwise you can email me or burn them to a CD if there are too many to send over the internet.

I am looking forward to reviewing all my photos and audio after which I will post them to the website for all to see. There were over 1000 pictures and 500 audio clips.

I post an update after the 50 mile run this weekend too.