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.