The Best Worst Experience of My Life

That's now what I'll be referring to Ironman Louisville 2008.

Pre-Race
The night before I left, triathlon vomited on my floor:

Junior knew I was leaving :(
I left good 'ol Memphis about 11am. I first had to drop Junior off, visited with a friend, and then saw Chrissy, Evan, and Madison before finally hitting the road. The drive was uneventful, I just wanted to get there!

Once I arrived, I checked in and found Mira right away. She thankfully took my big suitcase upstairs so I could go back to the parking garage to get my bike. I checked in before taking my stuff upstairs so I could get that out of the way. Checking in for an Ironman is SO INTENSE. They sort of interview you, I suppose to make sure you're sane enough (or insane enough) to do the race. I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to figure out all the bags with their various colors and what not, but I think that was checking in nerves. Like....holy hell I'm actually going to attempt an Ironman.

Got all my stuff upstairs, and then Mira and I went to dinner with lots of people, including Eileen Swanson! What a sweetie. We're like best friends now. Ok, not really, but it was so awesome to get to meet her.

After dinner, Mira and I headed down to transition to take a look around. I was getting kinda nervous...I'm actually here!! We met a very nice couple, and the woman (Erica I think was her name?) did the race last year. She was giving us all the info on where we would be entering and exiting transitions and things of that nature. She was very helpful! She's actually done a lot of the same races I have because she's from St. Louis. I hope I see her again at another race.

Slept OK thurs night...I didn't sleep very well at all this whole WEEK. But we had a really nice hotel suite :)

Friday morning, we woke up and did the Gatorade practice swim. I was kinda nervous to swim in the river, but it was actually better than some lakes I've swam in! I only swam for 10:30. I swam against the current for 6 minutes, and the same distance on the way back only took me 4:30. After the swim, I headed back to the hotel and showered to get the river funk off of me. Mmmmmmm river funk.

I napped, of course, but only after getting coffee. Usually, I either nap OR have coffee, but this is Ironman, so I opted for both. Later in the day I found Target and carefully chose Ironman supplies (i.e. lots of carbs). We went to dinner that night with Eileen again, and the Kate Monster family. They were awesome! After a glass breaking issue, we left full of carbs :)

The family arrived during dinner, so I drove over to the campsite to visit for a bit. I'm soooooo glad they came.

Saturday morning....IRONMAN EVE.

Holy crap, it hits me. I'm going to be doing an Ironman tomorrow. Who told me to do this? Who do I blame???

Gatorade swim practice #2. Found my girl Barb who was working the "we'll watch your stuff" tent. She hooked me up with extra water bottles and gatorade...Thanks B! Swam the same route as the day before, and finished in nearly the exact same time. Though this day the water was much rougher. Found Mike (Barb's hubby) afterwards and we walked back to the hotel. Then we rode together for about 20 minutes. It was nice to be on my bike...hadn't been on it in a few days. Mike decided to run, and I opted out...I'll get enough of that tomorrow, I thought.

Tried to take a nap, but was far too nervous to sleep. I was having dinner at the campsite. The 'rents were making me my normal breakfast dinner. Pancakes and sausage! It was delicious. I didn't stay long, because it was hot and I wanted to stay out of the heat. Headed back to the hotel, and Mira and I prepped our stuff for race morning. We were in bed at 9:30 but we watched tv for a bit because we were too nervous to sleep!!

Race Morning

The future 2x Ironman and Ironman on Race Morning:

Our wakeup call was at 3:45am. I went to the 24 hour coffee place on the 3rd floor and got some coffee. Came back, ate a bagel and peanut butter and packed up our last things. We headed down to the transition area: about a 1/2 mile walk. Good warmup, right??

It was so strange to not set up my towel and put everything out for my transitions. We just racked our bikes (after airing up the tires), and gave the volunteers our special needs bags. Mira, Doug, Susan, and I walked down to the swim start (about another 3/4 of a mile). Then...we......waited, and waited and WAITED. I honestly felt like we were waiting in line for concert tickets. Only, in a swimsuit. We waited for nearly an hour, until finally the pros were off! OH MY GOSH. I'm really about to race for 15+ hours. It's going to be a looooooong day.