Pre IM WI - Friday/Saturday

Friday morning rolls around and we are all ready for some more fun. Josh headed out to ride the loop, while Cassie, Trina, and I headed downtown. Trina got another ART massage while Cassie and I headed over to Machinery Row to get a few minor bike adjustments - new brake pads for me and shift cable adjustments for Cassie. Cassie found out there were some bigger issues with her bike, but there was nothing she could do at this point. Afterwards we headed into The Terrace for a little IM mechandise shopping. Next we hustled away from the crowds and grabbed a quick lunch from Jimmy John's before meeting Bruce for a drive on the bike course.

The radio was playing Ironman, by Black Sabbath and it really got us going. After driving the course, Cassie and I rode for about 45 minutes to make sure our bikes were functioning well. A quick shower, another drive back to The Terrace, and we were at the dinner hall buzzing with wannabe IM athletes. A whole crowd of us from C-Town were there trying to soak it all in. I wished I could have met some of the other bloggers at dinner at Stu's abode that night. It sounded like loads of fun. But no biggie, since I would meet many of them on Sunday.

Later that evening, Trina, Cassie, Josh, and I grabbed some ice cream. As we sat outside it became apparent that we were in for some nasty weather. The wind picked up and the air started to bite. We knew that this was the inclement weather that was in the forecast. We all hoped it would blow over before Sunday, but I knew better.

When we finally got back to my aunt and uncle's, I went out to the garage to spend some quality time with Ferrah, my bike. (By the way, my Felt F1C has been named Ferrah. If anyone wants an explanation leave me a comment and I'll tell you the inspiration of that name.) I pre-glued my spares and gave my bike a good cleaning. I had a bit too much energy and did not sleep much again; I was ready for Sunday but would have one more day to wait.

Saturday morning I got up again with less sleep than I had hoped. After some breakfast, I went out to the garage to get my spare tires ready. And for the first time all week, I become frustrated. I could not find a good way to secure my two spare tires. Holy crap was I getting pissed off. And I wanted to get in a quick run in the morning as well too. Well Cassie finally told me to get a hold of myself. Breathe...okay so I decided to shove a spare with some tools into a bike bag and throw the other tire into the special needs bag. I was rolling the dice that I would not need that second tire before mile 58. But crap that did episode take me out of my game.

The damage was done as I had lost my cool; it threw me off all day. But things were about to get a bit more interesting. We rolled downtown to drop off our bikes. When we got there we felt something was just not right. I racked my bike, covered up the saddle and aerobars with some bags (forgot about TriEric's tip to bring extra swimming caps) and then regrouped with my IM sisters. We ran into a few other C-Town athletes and then we realized we had messed up - our transition bags had yet to be packed.

Oh my...shit... shit... All right, all right. Breathe...BREATHE!!!! Okay, no time for lunch. The plan...Let's get those bags packed and hustle back here. We'll be fine...Calm down....Breathe...

Luckily the three of us knew what we were doing and what we needed. We threw all our gear into the bags, double checked with each other and hopped back into the car. I was still a bit frazzled as my driving certainly wasn't the safest at that time.

I hadn't worn my racing flats in a month so I slipped my orthotics into those shoes and wore those on my way back downtown. We got back into The Terrace and scoped out the scene. We walked through the hordes of people and dropped off our bags. We also tried to figure out our route through the maze of rooms that we would need to go through during transition. Swim to bike bags here, the get naked room, enter bike to run room over there, back into the get naked room, out to the bikes. Check. I ran into Iron Wil again and we exchanged pleasantries; she was floating on air and seemed ready to go.

We headed back to the Great Dane for a really late lunch or really early dinner. Either way we were fortunate that it worked out quite well, timing wise. We wrapped up our hearty meal around 16:00. I attended Mass that evening and all the misadventures from the day seemed to ease away.

Now back at the house, it was time to get my picnic lunch ready for Sunday. Ham sandwich...check. Peanut butter jelly...check. Pretzels...check. Cookies...check. Three bottles of Accelerade...check. A couple of Clif bars...check. Eight Carb Boom gels...check. Everything else I would want would be grabbed at the aid stations. I threw a few things into my special needs bags -spare tire for the bike and socks in a Ziploc for the run - and let out a sigh of relief. Everything was pretty much prepared and ready to go.

I had never been out on the run course, so Cassie and I watched some of the podcasts from Stu. Now time to kick back and watch some football. OSU v Texas. What a game for the Buckeyes!!! I stayed up until it was over. My relatives were just getting back from dinner and so I said goodnight to them. I turned the lights out, laid my head back, and waited for the next morning to arrive...