This trip was quite an adventure. I'll try to summarize the whole weekend....
So Friday night was my friend Becky's wedding. We've been friends since 2nd grade and I got the priviledge of being a bridesmail. Here is Jess, Becky and I. The three of us have stayed close after high school.
It was a little warm but a beautiful day for an outdoor wedding. Becky was gorgeous and we all had a fantastic time! The evening for me ended somewhere around midnight since I had to getup at 5:00 for work.
Yes that's right, work on a Saturday. It was the larger of my two main work events. The MiracleKids Triathlon at Lake Ann. It's the largest fundraising event for the Miracles of Mitch Foundation. It was a little on the warm side but the event went really well. We had over 800 kids racing that day. My favorite part was getting to meet all the All-Stars that I have been in touch with only over email at this point. The All-Stars are kids that have or are in remission from cancer that have an affiliation with the Foundation. Clean-up from the event ended somewhere around 3pm. Then Mark and I had to get packed up and head for Freemont, WI
Freemont was about a 4 hour drive from home. We found a cheap hotel to stay at the night. It was pretty funny. Although at the time it was quite creepy! The place had about 8 rooms that look like tiny old bedrooms converted to have a sink in them and a shared bathroom that I attempted to avoid. You had to check in at the bar downstairs and honestly it felt like the kind of place they film the start of horror movies. Here's a couple pics of our room
And this picture would be why I think these rooms were usually just used for drunks that couldn't make it home from the bar downstairs....and the reason I couldn't get myself to believe the covers were clean enough to sleep under...
So the next morning we got up before anyone in town was anywhere near awake to drive to the start in Fon-Du-Lac. I was surprised at how many people were at the event. It's only the second year this event has been put on.
Here's a good shot of our wave waiting to start
And us of course sporting our Caribou Coffee jerseys.
And the beautiful sunrise over Lake Winnebago somewhere in the first few miles.
Now as many of you know, I have been having nothing but issues with my bike comfort. This ride was no exception. Somewhere around mile 20 I was starting to hurt something awful. Girly parts were not happy. And of course my wonderful, cheerful companion who is so great at biking and taking pictures captured me here. You can tell how enthused I am about this whole thing.
Luckily there were quite a few rest stops and unfortunately I had to use every last one to stay sane. Emotionally and mentally I was done somewhere around mile 30 (because I was physically done).
Thankfully, as always, Mark was by my side trying to maintain a positive outlook. He was having fun with the camera most of the way and got a picture of me going under the "King of the Hill sign". That group was LONG gone by time we got there :-P
I probably encountered at least 2-3 panic attack moments when my mind starting wandering to "oh my god...I really am not going to survive Ironman, how will I ever make the cutoff if I am in this much pain after only 30 miles of relatively flat terrain? What the hell is wrong with me?"
But somehow right about the 7 hour mark we crossed the finish line. Damn near last. I think a few more minutes and we wouldn't have gotten a finisher medal, they were basically already tearing down by time we got there.
I was beyond frustrated, disappointed, sad and freaked out....
So much so that on that following Tuesday I completely readjusted everything on my bike myself. Having no idea what is good and bad to do, I just started wrenching to what I hoped would be a more comfortable fit.
Was it any better? Stay tuned to find out...
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