I'm sitting here in my hotel. My family is coming up today via train through Chicago, then up to a small town near Madison. I registered yesterday, got all my transition bags, the stickers for bike and helmet, my timing chip. They took my weight so the medics have a benchmark in the event I end up in a medical tent...I suppose if you go from 180 to 170 lbs in one day you get an IV. I met a guy that has done this event in Madison every year since its inception - 9 years in a row. The oldest athlete is 72 years old. He wants to do it in 12-13 hours! I want 10-11 range, so that guy is like superman. The Germans are here again....ranking third in International presence. Canada is 2nd. UK is 4th. All 50 states are represented. A total of 21 countries have athletes competing.
I've been slamming COLD-EZE, drinking orange juice, and drinking lots of 'Naked' 100% smoothie juices. I don't like to even write about illness, as in a 'cop-out' pre-race as plausible justification for poor performance, my sore throat is not going to be the reason I use if I don't meet my time. It will have been lack of training. I had a few conversations yesterday with people - sounds like their volume was a lot more than mine. Maybe they were bragging though...people like to talk big sometimes.
Today I have to pack up all my gear. This event has an 'assisted' transition, I guess you would call it. You get out of the water, lay down on the ground and people strip your wet-suit off like a banana. Then the run to transition, which goes up a circular parking garage ramp into a nice conference center. In this huge room there are rows of numbered transition bags. I find my SWIM to BIKE bag, with a volunteer's help, and get ready. Helmet, socks, shoes, sunglasses, Hammer gel, then I run to my bike. Calm, lower my heart rate, and settle in for 5.5 hours of cycling. I need to get my BIKE SPECIAL NEEDS bag ready today...spare CO2, tube, Powerbars maybe, rain jacket maybe (although the weather is supposed to be nice). In my BIKE TO RUN bag I'll have shoes, another pair of dry socks if needed, visor, and maybe a few more gels. Then I push through. Easy. RUN SPECIAL NEEDS = a spare change of shoes, Powerbar if needed, and lots of methamphetamine. Kidding.
I'm excited. A little nervous. I just want it to start, but I have another day to lay around and wait. Thanks for reading my thoughts over these past several months. This blog did help me maintain my consistency. It also allowed me to do something other than swim laps, peddle, and run. I tried to make it more than an exercise journal, as how interesting can that be? I have just a few hours to decide if I want to go through all this again next year. I'm thinking not. I'd like to do Muncie next year, and Steelhead. But I'd really like to get in Escape from Alcatraz...a triathlon that starts on/near Alcatraz with a swim to San Francisco in cold strong current shark water. YES! Too bad there's a lottery to get into that event also. I'm listless - not sure where to go now. I see a lot of people that have given up - they just work their 40 hours per week, watch TV at night, pay the bills routinely, think about what happened in their lives and what could have happened. I think that may be what Ironman does for people - it wedges something good/challenging/healthy into mostly ordinary lives. And it's not in the pursuit of money. Quite the contrary on that note. I'll do Wisconsin again, but likely not next year. Although - boy I would be in good shape. Build upon where I am now? Who knows...I have until 11:00 am today to get in.
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