Done and done ...

13:25:05

A great experience and a lot of fun! 5th in my age group. More to come...

(oh and I am still claiming SOME psychic ability... if you remember, in my dream I finished in 13:23 so if you need me to predict race times for you just don't expect them to be exact) :)

And we're off...

I am pretty sure none of these people would kick me in the face. Right?

Toes in the sand and ready to go. Fighting back the nerves and focusing on finishing this thing with a smile on my face. Thank you all for your support and inspiration. I appreciate every kind word of encouragement. It means so much :)

Here we go...

After what seemed like a short drive from home yesterday, I arrived at the expo to pick up my race packet. I was one of a small handful of people browsing the expo. Packet pick up was a breeze, no waiting since I was the only one there. I suspect most people are checking in later today. The opposite of what I experienced in Augusta with an hour long wait for packet pick up and hundreds of people packing the merchandise area. As I stepped up and they asked my name to find my race packet, a wave of nerves hit me. Those waves have been coming off and on over the past couple of days. This morning, the nerves are less of a wave and more of a constant presence.



I drove over to the beach start yesterday. Nothing was set up quite yet so it was a little hard to picture the day but they did have the turn buoy out. A few people were testing the waters. The water temperature right now is 68 degrees. The forecast tomorrow calls for rain until noon and 19 mph winds. I can deal with the rain but I could use a little less wind. From what I am told the NNW winds will mean a headwind for the first 40 miles and chop on the swim. I am guessing that would also mean a tailwind coming back but could be wrong on that one. One can hope.



My various bags are packed and ready to drop off later today with my bike. Big plans today are to attend the race meeting and relax. I somehow missed seeing the event merchandise area when checked in (I am blaming nerves) so I'll make a run through that when I go to the meeting and check out the battleship. They have a haunted house in the battleship on Friday and Saturday night. How cool!



CR ended up not being able to make the trip so I am doing this solo. Praying I make it through this in once piece so I can drive myself back to the hotel Saturday night! Well, also praying for no flat tires and less wind too but trying not to get greedy with the prayers :)

What I did on my final taper weekend...

Alternately titled, 'and then there were four (days)...' You know how I love a good countdown :)

My scheduled workouts over the final taper weekend amounted to about 5 hours between Saturday and Sunday. I had a ridiculous amount of free time, I didn't quite know what to do with myself. I loved every moment of it and actually got to the point Sunday night where I was bored.

Over the weekend, I read the book "You are an Ironman" cover to cover. I slaved over a hot crock pot making BBQ chicken while watching an untold number of episodes of "Snapped" on Oxygen and all kinds of TV shows I had recorded on my DVR. What seemed like every scrap of laundry in my house was washed, dried and put away and I started to pack for the trip to Wilmington. Floors were mopped, blogs were read and toes were painted. All in all a great weekend of some much need st home time!

If you are interested, Beach 2 Battleship has online tracking for the first time this year - Hooray! Go HERE and enter bib number 587 to follow my progress on Saturday.

Four days out and I have settled into a calm about the race. Not particularly nervous about the race itself. The things that are making me nervous now are more the logistical things like getting to the transition on race morning and whether or not I have everything I need in my bags. The plan is to pack the various transition and special needs bags tonight so I don't have to worry about it when I get to Wilmington. I can just drop them off and be done with it.

At this point, I am not 100% sure CR can go with me to the race which is a big bummer. It is still undecided but am trying to mentally prepare myself either way. The store owner at his shop had some emergency surgery Sunday night and is in the hospital. The owner was going to cover for CR while we were on vacation so now CR needs to decide if he should stay and work or go on vacation. The owner is telling him to go but not sure if that is the right thing to do. CR hasn't decided yet so I guess we still need to figure that one out. I certainly understand either way. Worst case, he can track me online and I can call him when I get done assuming I have the energy to lift the cell phone to my ear. LOL.

Also... Congratulations to Suz of Cowboys and Lasers and Everything in Between! She won the 4All by JoFit polo shirt. Hop on over and check out her blog. She is running her first half marathon on November 12th!

All about the numbers…

9 more days!

My race number for Beach 2 Battleship was posted this week. I was a ball of nerves just looking up the number and honestly for the past few days have been that same ball of nerves 24/7 when it comes to thinking about the race. Oddly enough today, I feel calm and confident about the whole thing. There must something to taper madness.

So, my number? 587. I don’t know about you but I have a thing about numbers. Race numbers with a 7 in them make me happy. Race numbers with a 3 and a 7 in them, nothing but good things can happen that day. While this number technically does not have a 3 in it, that is nothing a little basic math can’t fix. 8 minus 5 and there we have our 3. Looks like it is going to be a good race :) Did I mention that this was my 7th triathlon? It just keeps looking better and better!

Speaking of numbers. I have been checking the weather off and on for the past day or so. Yes, it is too early to know what is really going to happen but as of right now, it is looking like 61 for the high and 37 for the low. Yesterday the wind was listed as 24 MPH! Dear Lord. Today it is down to 12 MPH. If it can keep ticking down between now and next Saturday that would be great. Unless of course said wind can push me like a tumbleweed through 112 miles of biking and then stick around to push me for 26.2 more.

In an effort to assure myself that I have done enough to train for this race (here we go with the taper madness again…), I was looking over my numbers from training. Since I started training for this race in May, I have logged 145,227 yards swimming, 1872 miles biking and 447 miles running. Crazy. It really doesn’t seem like I have done that much. The bike miles really get me because I still think of myself as a total newb on the bike. It may not be a lot of miles compared to other "iron" people but for me those are some EPIC numbers considering the biking was such a source of intimidation for me just six months ago.

In other news…



If you like GU gels, the GU website has a special going on right now, that seems like a pretty decent deal. $19.99 for a mixed box of 24 gels – 19 regular gels of various flavors and 5 roctane gels. Click HERE if you want to order. I believe shipping is $3.99. Use coupon code GUMIXED2011



*Don’t forget to enter my giveaway for a 4all by Jofit polo. Your odds are pretty good… just sayin’*

Go Pink for the Cure...

My friends over at 4All by Jofit have come out with a pink blush polo in honor of breast cancer awareness month and are giving one away to one of you!

Joanne Cloak, founder and CEO of 4all has a personal connection to the cause as a result of watching her sister bravely battle and survive breast cancer twice. Once Joanne created 4all in 2007, she knew that she would do something to help women like her sister. 10% of each sale of each pink blush Jo-Polo goes to support Susan G Komen for the Cure.

I know these clothes are really for golf, tennis and fitness but I like wearing them to work on casual day! They are wrinkle free and the hem is long enough so you don't feel like you need to constantly pull it down which I adore.




My company's home office is in Texas and they love casual days there. We tend to get them for all sorts of reasons. Usually if someone mentions the words Texas Tech in the hallway, we will get an email announcing casual day. For several weeks during the summer, we had casual days because it was so hot. We currently have casual days until the end of the world series (you know, Texas Rangers and all...). Any excuse is a good one for me. In the meantime, I will be sporting my jeans and thankful that I don't have to iron anything!

This is my chillin' at home in taper mode look... 11 more days! Don't you love my wall decoration of an empty phone jack. Lovely.



So... back to the point.... 4all is giving away either a polo or sleeveless polo to one of you! All you have to do is "like" 4all on Facebook or follow them on Twitter. Leave a comment for each. I will draw a winner on Tuesday, October 25th. Good Luck :)

Shall we continue with the countdown?

It is starting to get real up in here! I kind of want to do a post counting down EVERY SINGLE DAY between now and October 29th but I will save you the agony. Last week when there were 3 weeks to go it still seemed far enough in the distance to be “that thing I am doing at the end of the month”, you know, weeeeeeeks from now. Now, we are two weeks away from packing up the car with my gear and hitting the road. Even typing that sentence made my heart rate go up a few beats.

My peak training was last weekend so ready or not, I am headed to Wilmington in two weeks. I am officially into the taper at this point. Hooray!

I have been soaking up information in race reports like a sponge and making lists of things I need to bring or do or just think about doing. I have all sorts of lists. My lists even have lists. At this point, the list for the various transition and special needs bags looks like I am packing enough for a three day weekend as opposed to a 5 minute change of clothes or brief stop along the course to refuel. I am pretty sure I need to apply some tough love to the list and trim it back a bit.

When it started getting chilly last week, it occurred to me that I need to decide what I am going to wear. This sort of makes me laugh - it sounds like such a girly thing to say – ‘whatever shall I wear’. With sprint, Olympic and even half-irons, the decision is pretty easy; you wear the same thing from beginning to end. In iron distance races, typically there is a changing tent and people can change clothes at each transition. I have to say, it might be nice to start out a 112 mile bike ride in dry clothes. I still haven’t fully decided what I am going to do there; I am leaning towards changing just to be more comfortable. I am not trying to win any awards so am not all that concerned about the extra time. Well, except for that dream I had…. I dreamt I crossed the finish line in 13:23:23. I can’t remember any other details of the dream, only the time. Weird. I feel as though I need to put it out there. That way if that *is* the actual time I finish, I can start my business as a psychic. I can set up a booth at race expos and predict finish times. You would pay for that, right? ;)

In other news, CR didn’t seem too interested in the cowbell I bought for him. He will warm up to the idea of it. I told him everyone on the race course loves to hear a good cowbell. He seemed unconvinced. In all fairness, he does enjoy watching the shorter races so am sure he will get into it and be ringing that cowbell like a madman before it is over. I mean, he really only needs to ring it for 13 hours 23 minutes and 23 seconds, that is not too much to ask...

TWO WEEKS!

In real life...

I got to meet a blogger in real life today! It is always kind of interesting to meet a blogger, you know so much about them going into it yet you have never actually spoken to that person.

Meredith at Swim Bike Mom is racing the Ironman 70.3 in Miami on October 30th with her husband. They are dedicating their efforts to Caden Stanley through yRun. I encourage you to visit her post about Caden and help out if you can. Even $5 would be appreciated.



I had the good fortune of winning a SWEET Mix1 package Meredith gave away on her site a week or so ago. It turns out that Meredith and I go to the same gym and have the same deep appreciation (*cough*) for a certain early morning spin class. Truth be told, it is the strangest spin class ever. I may have to set up hidden video some time just so you can see.

Even though we go to the same gym, we actually had never met so we agreed to meet up for the beloved spin class. In true second rate blogger style, I did not take a picture of us. It was 5:30 AM and who wants their picture taken at 5:30 AM? Exactly...

Big thanks to Meredith for the Mix1 drinks and gear! If you have a chance, hop over to her blog at Swim Bike Mom and give her some ironman love and encouragement. As if doing a half-iron is not impressive enough, she is also a lawyer and mother of two little ones. I think that trumps me in the "I'm tired because I have too much to do" category. :)

Taking advantage of the three day weekend...

Sometimes working in banking has its perks. Hello Columbus Day weekend! This could not have come at a better time. Those clothes are still in that chair waiting to be folded, I still need to catch up on my sleep and am thinking I will take care of both of those things on Monday. I may not even leave the house all day :)

I did get a little treat in the mail today from Amazon. B.o.B. recommended this book and who couldn't use a little IM motivation right about now? I am glued to IRONMAN LIVE tonight! While you are at it, check out B.O.B.'s post about endurance. So very true. I may not have any fast twitch muscles but I can endure so that has to count for something.

Oh... so my treat?



Maybe those clothes in the chair can wait.

Before I get to Monday, I am working through my last EPIC training weekend. I am climbing the mountain this week so I can work my way back down next week. This is the weekend I looked at the schedule and realized what I had committed to on October 29th. Yikes.

Today was a 100 mile ride followed by a three mile run. Those last few miles on the bike were a little rough, I was definitely ready to stop riding. I had also not run immediately following a ride that long. It is interesting how different your legs feel after 100 as opposed to even 60 or 70 miles.

Tomorrow is a 20 mile run and then I am done for the weekend! If you need me, I will be propped up on the couch...

Priorities...

I have a laptop for work which I am required to bring home every night. Last night, I had more than a few things to unload from the car and gave half a thought to just leaving the laptop in the car. Then I realized I couldn't... Why? Well, because I keep my training plan in my laptop bag and I couldn't risk it being stolen. True story. Yeah, not that I really would want anything to happen to the laptop but my real priority clearly was not losing my training plan. LOL.

As I was leaving the gym this morning I saw a car in the parking lot with 2 stickers on the windshield. The first sticker was this:



Directly below it was this one:




Whether it be a marathon or an ironman, I think we all can relate to that one, no?

25 more days...

Time to perservere...

“Perserverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of all the hard work you have already done.”

This quote was posted on Facebook today by the race directors of Beach 2 Battleship. I really needed to hear that right now. I am getting close to the three week mark. My last epic training cycle is this weekend and am already fighting off the dread of this weekend.

I don’t think the issue is whether or not I can do the training, the issue is more of just feeling tired. I am sure it is perfectly normal; I am so close to seeing this thing through and am feeling the need for a break. A morning to sleep in or an afternoon to lie on the couch and watch TV would be oh so welcome right about now. I look around the house and see the pile of laundry in a chair that has been there for over a week. It is clean I just haven’t had the time to do anything other then pull it out of the dryer and toss it into a chair. I guess the taper weeks are for folding laundry and cleaning house, right? :)

Most days it feels like a never ending cycle of waking up, working out, going to work, working out again, go to bed and start all over. I guess this is where the perseverance comes in. You focus on the end result, build your mental toughness and count the days until your toes are in the sand at the start line of the race. Perseverance. I may have to tattoo that on my arm (or at least write it in sharpie...)