It seems my blog is an afterthought these days. I guess it kinda is. Facebook is where it's at, baby!
So we went to Florida, our first time down there. I've dipped in and out for work before, but I'm always on a mission and in a time bubble when I travel for work, and my surroundings are pure background for the post part, so...it doesn't count.
I could never live there. It's just not my bag, even though I love, love, love the ocean. Florida just doesn't cut it for me, at least not the slice of the state we saw. Way too many tacky souvenir shops, way, way too much pink and green, and a lot of scary Spanish moss. And things like alligators. Even though I didn't see any, I saw the signs everywhere!
But it was beautiful when we were there, and the town was virtually deserted except for the two thousand Ironman athletes and their families. Lots of shaved legs, low body fat, fast bikes to gawk at.
I also noticed this Ironman had a much, much more international feel than the other two I've done. I heard more foreign accents -- and when we were working the water station, a lot of foreign talk. (German being my favorite, of course!).
Our friend Dan was doing his first Ironman, so we went to cheer for him.
In one house it was Dan and his wife Gaye and their 4 nearly-grown kids, us, Kurt, and Kara and Mike. It took me about a day to get used to the hub-bub, but then I loved the energy and the activity of that many people!
Kurt and Dan are like family to us. I'll never forget how they came to Louisville and supported us for our first one. Words cannot describe my gratitude, and I'm sure Rog feels the same way. It just meant a lot to me that they'd do that for us, and it forever sealed our bond with them.
Race day turned out beautiful. Dan's family had IronShrek shirts printed up for everyone, so we proudly put those on and headed to the swim start.
The water was calmish, the sun was shining, it wasn't nearly as windy as it'd been in previous days. I was constantly surprised at how cold it was every morning, though. It was COLD!
I won't describe play-by-play the entire day, just know it was a good day. We cheered at the swim -- and stayed until the darkest end for five Ironman athletes who didn't make the 2:20 cutoff. Rog and Kurt were yelling at a few of the "close" ones to hurry up, but I couldn't watch. I actually started crying and had to walk up the beach. It was heartbreaking.
We cheered on the bike and managed to find Dan not once, but twice on the course with no maps.
We volunteered on the run and ran the water/aid station outside our rental house for about 7 hours. Holy exhausting! It was great, though. When I'm racing I don't get to see the rest of the field, or if I do, I'm too wrapped up in my world to notice them. I was surprised at how many of them "look like me". I don't know if it's because Florida has such a high number of first timers or what, but it was a surprise.
Dan did awesome. He did something to his knee on the bike and couldn't run at all on the run course. He was really disappointed and in a lot of pain, but you know what? He did it. He finished 140.6 miles in less than 17 hours. I'm so, so, so proud of him.
And it's probably no surprise now, but we signed up for IMFL 2010.
Ha ha. I distintcly remember swearing "no more" after Arizona, but I've had a lot of time to sit on the bench and think this year.
You know what? It's not the race, it's the lifestyle and the training and our wild friends that draws us to this crazy sport. I do enjoy race day, but I love nothing more than hopping out of bed at 4:30 on a Saturday, meeting at Dan's house, and heading out for an 90-mile bike ride. Then sitting at his house exhausted, eating pineapple and laughing.
This is why I do Ironman, and I'm happy to be healthy enough to do another one!
In other "exciting" Ironmanish news: I got my first "sponsor" yesterday! I know, I know. I use the term loosely. I realize I'm not sponsor-worthy, but my magical doctor was so excited for us that he offered to sponsor our post-workout recovery nutrition for a year! Woot!
If you get a chance, check out www.riseabovenutrition.com!