Ode to a Runner's Friend

Well, we're back from our rock climbing trip. Though we had planned on camping out in the higher altitudes near Colorado Springs, we had to change our itinerary due to some colder weather conditions (it ended up snowing 6-8 inches where we would have been camping!) We decided to head east instead and ended up spending a few days at a wonderful, rocky bluff area along the river in the Mississippi Palisades State Park. We also traveled back into Iowa for our final night, just west of Dubuque to Backbone State Park where we climbed and repelled challenging crack formations. All in all it was an awesome time, with great camping and conversation that kept us busy throughout our trip.

On a sad note, I lost a good friend during this past week's climbing trip...one who had been with me for over six years. Through the PRs, and the occasional DNFs, it had become my buddy, a silent partner of mine for the past 8 marathons, as well as countless road and adventure races. I'm talking about my Timex Ironman Triathlon watch. {Sigh}

My Ironman buddy was always there at my side, providing split times constantly at my beck and call, always urging me to jack up the pace and not be such a wimp, forgiving me when I missed a PR by an inscrutable amount. But somehow this weekend, I don't know how it happened -- whether due to a simple rope abrasion while on one of many steep repels, or during the brief escapade I had on a narrow mountain ledge in order to locate the lost lense cap from a friend's camera -- our partnership dissolved when we became irrevocably separated. One moment I had been checking the timing of a spectacular 120 foot decent I'd just nailed, and the next all I'd found was an empty wrist. Just like that, my friend of so many years was gone.

I'll miss you, my training friend. Of course, I searched and searched in vain, but you were no where to be found. I guess you're still up there, somewhere. Somewhere near the famously tall column of rock there at the Mississippi Palisades State Park where you now reside; likely still courageously ticking away the time and splits, as you so bravely did amidst all the harrowing racing circumstances I had put you through. I'd like to think you are better off, and that thought makes this loss feel a bit easier to handle. Maybe if I picture you gently resting on a soft patch of moss atop that rocky bluff we climbed together along the Mississippi river, somewhere enjoying the beautiful scenic sunset view as the riverboats silently pass by, it will ease my pain. Though I know you are in a better place, I'll still miss you.

It will be hard to replace what that watch meant to me. However, as training obviously necessitates the accuracy of timing, I know I need to let go, even if to compartmentalize the sorrow from this weekend and soldier on.

So I did just that...say hello to my new Ironman training buddy!