I AM AN IRONMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!

YEAH BABY!

I am sitting on a patio in Cascade Locks Oregon in the beautiful sunshine....ahhhh....its so nice! We made it here last night safe and sound.

So I will give you a quick version of the days before Ironman, Ironman, and post Ironman and I will try to get the race report out soon!

Wednesday we drove from nice sunny weather to rainy Penticton! Once we got there it was straight to the merchandise tent! I wanted to make sure I could get some stuff in my size! Once we finished up in Penticton we went back out to Summerland to set up camp. I went for a little run to get my legs moving.

Thursday was registration day! When I got up I went for a very quick swim in the lake. It was so quick that it took me longer to walk to the beach, put on my wetsuit, take off my wetsuit, and walk back! I was the only one on the beach and it is creepy swimming by yourself in a lake! After that I went for a bike ride and toured around Summerland a bit. Once that was said and done it was registration time. There was many a line up in the registration tent, but I signed my life away and got all of my numbers, race chip, etc. Surprisingly still not nervous at all! We went out for dinner that night to Saltys (yummmm) with the rest of the Legend Coaching Team!

Friday the fam started rolling into town. Didn't do too much on Friday, mostly just running around trying to get all of my last minute stuff for Ironman (chad was sooo patient:).

Saturday I met with the team bright and early in the morning for a quick swim and a walk around transition. This was our last chance to attak Greg with questions. After the swim I went back to the campsite and did a little bike and run. I was good to go! Chad helped me organise all of my gear and we were off the check my bike in! Penticton was buzzing with excitement on Saturday....still was not nervous....yeah me! The rest of saturday we hung out with family and then it was back to the campsite to get the rest of my stuff together and head to bed. Once I fell asleep I was out like a light until morning.

THE BIG DAY!

Luckily Chad set another alarm since mine didn't go off! I would have slept right through Ironman. We were up and ready to go and into Penticton in no time. I had to go through and dump the rest of my gear off, get numbered, put my nutrition on my bike, get into my wetsuit. I lost Chad in here but I was able to spot him and say good bye before the race started. I was finally FULL of butterflys and wondering what exactly I was in for!

The Swim: full of arms and legs....EVERYWHERE! It had its bad moments, the first pile up was like nothing I had ever experienced before. Once I figured out what to do when there were people evrywhere....literally you couldn't move....I was okay for the rest of the swim. I was a few minutes faster than I thought I would be!

The bike: it was good. I trained a lot for the bike so I was ready to hammer out the course. My legs took a little while to warm up. There is no feeling like riding down main street with all of those people everywhere cheering you on, it was unreal!

The run: The first 10 km went awesome. At about 13 km my stomach was upset from the gatorade, never again. Gatorade is the worst sports drink ever! After that I was trying to calm down my stomach for the rest of the race but somehow still take calories in. By the end of the Marathon it was pain, it hurt a lot. My quads hurt with every step...but I made myself keep running. I knew this wasn't going to be easy! I ran most of the marathon, I walked through aid stations and half way up a couple of the big hill on the way back into town!

Across the finish line Richelle and Greg were waiting for me, as well as my family snuck over the the gate so I could get hugs! It was a great day.

What I was not prepared for was the absolute sore legs I now have. There were couple of times I thought they may not hold me up. The worst is after I sit down for while, the are a little slow to get moving! Anyway, Chad is back from showering so it is holiday time! Take care!