Athletes...athletes everywhere.

This morning's run was 8 miles at projected marathon race pace, which isn't too bad because I did 10 miles last week below race pace. But I'm following this with 16 miles (gulp) tomorrow, so I wanted to make sure I didn't overdo it.

My plan was to run down to the Ohio River, then east along the river trail until I hit 4 miles, then double back. Well, as I neared the water I started seeing athletes. They were running, or biking on very nice bikes, and some of them were walking in their swimsuits still dripping water. It all became clear to me when I got the the waterfront park: thousands of triathletes were prepping for Ironman Louisville tomorrow. I took a picture of some of them getting used to swimming in the Ohio. Apparently, its a lot cleaner than it used to be.

Usually when I go run down by the river, I see 3-5 other runners out. This time, I must have seen hundreds. All kinds of triathletes doing the last runs of their taper period so they can be loose for tomorrow's Ironman race. All in all, it was really motivating. Tomorrow they will swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, and THEN run a full marathon. I'm nervous enough about just doing the marathon, much less all that before it! But it was definitely good energy for my run and tomorrow I'll be thinking about them while I'm doing my 16 miles. They will still be swimming or biking while I'm running as those two events will take up their entire morning, but after my run in the morning I think I'll walk a few blocks over to the marathon course and cheer them on some.