Hubby and I started our trek to Cedar Point when I got off of work on Thursday. We drove to Marietta, Ohio (not Georgia) and spent the night there. We finished the drive the next morning. When we arrived, we checked into our hotel and then headed over to the expo to pick up our packets and numbers. Reason #1 why Rev3 > Ironman, when you check in, they take a picture of you to show on the big screen as you finish. I naturally kept it classy with a big gawky sideways grin. I kinda wish I had the picture, but Benny can attest to the fact that it was nothing but gorg.
We then perused the expo and picked up some freebies (Muscle Milk and sunscreen), bought last minute race necessities (Honey Stinger Waffles and reflective vests...ok, so the vests we actually got at Menard's), and tried the Recovery Pump for the first time. Not quite what I expected. For whatever reason, I thought there was cold involved. They felt good while they were on, but like massage or compression socks, I didn't realize any lingering effects once they were off.
Friday night, we (I) rode some rides at Cedar Point. A week before the race, I came down with a cold, which was still lingering, and I was having some GI issues as well. I had no appetite whatsoever, so needless to say, we weren't at the park long. Both of us were exhausted from our travel, and I was exhausted from being sick as well. I did, however, get to ride Top Thrill Dragster for the first time.
Saturday morning, Ben went for a swim in the very muddy Lake Erie while I slept in a futile attempt to get better in time for the race. Later that day, Ben's family and their foreign exchange student (from Norway) came down to hang out with us. We didn't do much except try to take it easy and rest up for the race.
Sunday morning came way too quickly. It felt as if I had just signed up for the race, and yet, here it was, race day. I woke up with my intestines in turmoil. I said to Ben, "I came too far in my training to DNS, so I'm going to do the swim and then just quit, unless a miracle happens and I feel a million times better. Here's to hoping my stomach just hates me because I'm nervous." Transition was only a half mile or so walk down the beach from our hotel, but to save as much energy as we could, we drove over. Most of our stuff was set up the night before, so we didn't have much to do that morning except roll out of bed and put our wetsuits on. That was the latest I've ever slept in on a race day, and it was glorious.
I tried my best to put something in my stomach and I managed to get in a Cliff bar and half a bottle of Muscle Milk. I had a feeling it was going to be a long day...well, longer than usual for an Ironman distance race.
Race start came really fast. We said early good mornings to Ben's family before pretty much running over to the swim start. The afternoon before, they had dug out most of the mud, but it was still pretty mucky. We did some water acclimitazation further down shore from the start and the mud was literally knee deep on me, so it was amazing that they dug a path from shore into the water for the race.
The race ended up starting a little late as it took a while for it to get light enough to start. But around 7:10AM, we were off and starting our first ever 140.6 mile race.
I have been super busy the past two weeks and have not had time for a new post or a race recap. I expect everyone else to have race recaps up before they even finish, but here I am struggling to get one up before the end of the year. I'll start putting up pieces of the race recap later this week, but for now, I want to give you a brief review of the past two weeks, and maybe then you'll have mercy on me for not getting a race recap up sooner.
Sept. 11 - Rev3 Cedar Point Full distance...obviously, took all day. Will recap later.
Sept. 12 - Visited Ben's family and pretty much just lounged around...and ate ice cream. Being my typical post race self, I didn't really have an appetite, and the few seconds I did, I would take two bites of something and go back to being full/nauseous.
Sept. 13 - I drove back to North Carolina all by my lonesome. It was fine except West Virginia. I hate driving through West Virginia. If you've driven through it before, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Including pitstops, it took me about 12 hours, so pretty much dead on with what I expected.
Sept. 14 - Back to work
Sept. 15 - Still working
Sept. 16 - Last day of work week, hoorah!
Sept. 17 - Spent a good bit of the day unpacking. Hubby was forced into nice enough to allow me to do what I wanted with the kitchen, so I tackled that room first. One room down, five to go...
Note: I'll post before and after pictures of the house in a later post.
Sept. 18 - Picked up Ben from the airport. We were supposed to go couch shopping, but his last paycheck from his old job didn't come on Saturday as expected. Not to mention that furniture stores are closed on Sundays in North Carolina anyways.
Sept. 19 - Back to work already? Also, our two year anniversary! I can't believe its been two years already. I think we still have financial DOMS from the workout that is trying to pay for everything wedding related in a short amount of time. Anyways, Ben's paycheck finally came, and we had dinner at Ted's Montana Grill to celebrate. We used to go all the time when we lived in Columbus, but the Ted's in Massachusetts was a good drive away. I sure missed those pickle-y things. Then we went across the street to the mall for some retail therapy. Finally got me some nude pumps and Sperry's!
Sept. 20 - More work...and couch shopping...
Sept. 21 - Went to work again...and couch shopped some more...
Sept. 22 - Went to work...then out with my co-workers. The head AT at Campbell took a job at Michigan State, so we had a going away dinner/night out at the bar. I'm still not sure how I feel about driving an hour one way to get to bars that aren't sleezy.
Sept. 23 - Longest work day yet...15 hours on only 5 hours of sleep. It wasn't bad until hour 12. I really started struggling then. To think, some people take longer than 15 hours to do an Ironman. I guess I can't complain too much.
Sept. 24 - Slept...and went couch shopping. Finally found "the one". I had a very specific idea in mind for my couch, which made it harder to find "the one" in some regards, but easier in others. We didn't have to try a bunch of couches to see which one we liked, but we had to try several stores and drive all over tarnation to find what we were looking for. I kept telling Ben that I liked the one on Ashley's website, but he kept wanting to look at places that were closer and cheaper first. We finally settled on the Ashley one that I liked anyways. Can't wait for it to arrive! We got the sectional, but only bought one half of it now to make it easier on ourselves financially until we both start getting full paychecks. We'll buy the other half probably in late October.
Sept. 25 - Did some shopping to pick up cleaning supplies for the house and did some more unpacking.
Sept. 26 - Off to work again.
Also, an update on my brother. He had surgery on Sept. 15 to attach his lung to his chest wall to prevent it from collapsing again. However, he had a leak following the surgery. I guess its normal for small leaks to occur, and they heal on their own after a couple of days. His did not heal, so they did another surgery yesterday to close the hole where the leak was. His lung had opened up where they had put staples in during the first surgery. The doctor said it is very rare for leaks to happen after the first surgery and to remain leaky like it did. He's in a lot more pain this time around because they don't have him on morphine this time, but at least if everything goes well today, he should get to go home tomorrow. I know he's anxious to just be done with the whole "baby lung" issue, so I'm hoping and praying he doesn't spring another leak today.
