Foundation posted a few weeks ago a 4x4x48 challenge since Spartan was cancelled along with every other spring race that we had signed up for or might have signed up for.
The rules were simple. Starting anytime on Friday run 4 miles every 4 hours for 48 hours. So, if we started at 8am (which we did) then we would run again at 12pm, 4pm, 8pm, etc until 4am on Sunday morning.
I decided to participate because, well, what else did I have going on that weekend.
However, I asked 7 y/o Speed Bump if he wanted to ride along and complete the challenge. If you know Speed Bump, you know his answer, of course!
So, we headed off at 8am on Friday to start our first leg. Friday seemed pretty easy on the body and the rest of the family even joined in on the 12pm ride.
The true test for Speed Bump who is an INCREDIBLY hard sleeper was the 12am and 4am run/rides. Sure enough at 11:30pm when his alarm went off he was up and at em and getting dressed. He didn’t realize that I was still in my room when he started to walk downstairs and I heard him say to himself, “here goes nothing”…. Love that kid.
The first 12am was also interesting because Speed Bump looked like a lighted Chritmas tree riding around on his bike. Also, a dog chased him at the 2 mile mark which resulted in a detour through someone’s front yard in the dark.
Somehow I set my 3:30am wakeup alarm for the next leg at 3:30PM which could have been a disaster but Speed Bump luckily got up on his own and woke me up, totally saved the challenge.
Saturday was a LONG day with 6 of the 12 legs. By 4pm we were sick of the hills of Briarcrest and drove to Cuthbertson where some other guys were running and completed our 4 miles there.
The 8pm leg was also tough after a long hot day. My slowest leg of all 12. But only two more to go after that.
The 11th leg at 12am leg was tough to get up for and REALLY hard to get Speed Bump up for but I couldn’t let him not finish after making it through the first 10 legs like a champ. He got up but he was TIRED. I was tired too, and starting to really feel the soreness set in. The first half mile was torture but as we ran past Dancing Bear and Banjo’s houses they were still up hanging out on their driveways and the cheering and hollering gave Speed Bump and I the push we needed to get the penultimate lap going.
Finally, the 12th and final lap. Speed Bump struggled to get up again but he did it. We started out at a decent pace. The weather was perfect so we tried to maintain a good speed. Every culdesac we would cheer each other and the final mile we decided to push it, 6:51, our fastest split of the entire 48 miles.
Running 48 miles in 48 hours was the most miles I have ever run in two days. And while that was really cool, as I sit here and reflect and have reflected on this experience the most memorable and amazing part of the whole thing was watching Speed Bump push himself and see the grit he has. I wish I could take credit for it but it’s all him. I feel super blessed to be able to share his moment with him and spend the time together that we did.
Congrats on the other guys that also completed this challenge, it wasn’t easy, great job!