Ironman Switzerland

Is over! Thank goodness! I am definitely done with this distance! I thought I would post a list of the positive aspects of the day:

• It was not hot.


• I barely sweat.
  
• I did not get sunburned.
  
• There were cool rain covers for our bikes overnight.
  
• There was chicken broth on the run course, which truly saved me.
  
• While I do not think you can compare one ironman time to another, I did a PR for the swim and run for this distance. (By the way, I don't know where that timing mat was on the swim, but by my watch my actual swim time was closer to 58 min. Yes, I'm bitter.)
  
• The fan/spectator support were unmatched. I think every brass band in all of Zurich was out on the bike and run course.
  
• The courses (swim, bike, and run) were all spectacularly beautiful, even in the rain.
  
• Bill, Mary, and Betty were excellent cheerleaders.
  
• The doctor in the medical tent spoke english.
  
• The IV made me feel much better.


• Theresa, clearly one of my best friends, stopped racing after the bike, yet stood out on the run course (freezing her butt off) to cheer for me, and then after I finished got me to the medical tent, and then, somehow, with the help of Bill and Hugh (in the pouring rain) managed to get 4 bikes and everyone's soaking wet gear loaded on a tram and back to the hotel. I don't know what I would have done without her.

Welcome to Switzerland!

We're here! We got in Thursday morning, having not slept on the plane at all, and proceeded to spend the ENTIRE day out and about. We did the City Tour and the Lake Tour (on the boat), in an effort to learn our way around Zurich. While on the boat, I realized that the first stop was at the transition area for the race. So I told Theresa, I thought we should just stay on the boat past the point where we boarded, and the very next stop would be the transition area so we could check in for the race. I even asked one of the guys on the crew if the boat was going to go around the lake again and he said yes. Well clearly I was not specific enough in my question, or something was lost in translation, because no sooner did we sit back down and the boat pull away and it headed back out the opposite direction around the lake. So instead of the transition area being the first stop, it was the last. Another hour on the boat. Me and my brilliant ideas!! Absolutely exhausted, we finally got back to the hotel around 10:30pm and slept for 10+ hours.

Yesterday Amy and her parents arrived and we met up with some other friends doing the race. We decided to bike down to the lake for a swim, which somewhat resembled biking through New York City for the NYC Triathlon a few years ago - only without the skyscrapers but with the addition of trams to look out for. Not fun. The lake is beautiful, but with the storms coming in the water is getting choppy - I'm expecting a slow swim, but hopefully I'll be pleasantly surprised.

We walked around the expo for a while, where this girl I went to high school with (and haven't seen since) recognized me, even with a baseball cap on. Crazy! And would you believe that there is no change tent in the transition area?!!! Welcome to Europe! No gear bags, no change tent. You set up your transition area just like any other race, so I'm still pondering exactly what I'm going to wear and whether I'm changing clothes for each leg of the race. There does appear to be some sort of screen you can stand behind, so maybe that will do.

Next we climbed into Amy's friend Ronnie's VW bus for a tour of the bike course. I really wish I hadn't gone. I really do think ignorance is bliss for races. While a fair amount of the course is flat, there are two major hilly sections labeled "the beast" and "heartbreak hill." I wasn't freaked out until Amy started freaking out about not having the right cassette on her bike, etc. The beast looks something akin to Skyline Drive for about 3 miles or so and Heartbreak Hill resembles Mt. Weather, but narrow and will be lined with spectators and cowbells - like the Tour de France. We do each loop twice, with heartbreak hill coming at about mile 110 the second time around. Lovely! I will say though that is a spectacularly beautiful course. I'm glad we drove it in the sunshine so that we could fully appreciate it.

Betty, Amy's mom asked me yesterday if I was nervous. I replied that I'm not nervous, I'm annoyed. That got a good laugh, but its true! Having done this twice before, I know what its like, but I'm annoyed and uninspired. Annoyed at the logistics of the race, annoyed that there will be bad weather to contend with all day, and annoyed that I have these nuissance injuries to deal with. I think maybe I'll do one loop of the bike and then just be a spectator. :-)

Sorry no pictures. I haven't taken many yet, and I'm paying for internet access so don't feel like taking the time to upload them at the moment.

I must be crazy to do this again!!

Well, once again I am packing up my bike and will be hauling it through airports around the globe. I leave tomorrow for Zurich, Switzerland where I will be competing in Ironman Switzerland on Sunday, July 13.

My bike always looks so sad all disassembled and in the case. :-(

Zurich is 6 hrs. ahead of EDT. You can follow my race online at www.ironmanlive.com. They should be posting splits throughout the day. Due to a few nagging injuries and a race day forecast of 70 and rain.....I have no idea what to expect and have no expectations. I just hope I finish! Hopefully I will finish before the 16 hr. cutoff. For some reason the Swiss felt the need to trim the standard 17 hrs cutoff to 16 hrs. I can only hope it's a sign of a fast course!

If you want to get a sense of what the venue looks like in Zurich, and a glimpse of the craziness that is Ironman, there is an 8 min video of Ironman Switzerland 2007 on youtube at:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=GYrvH03yQTA

In addition, if you want to get a better sense of what it's like to swim with 2000+ of your closest friends, :-) (always a good time!) check out the first few seconds of this 3 min video of Ironman Hawaii.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw6LR__wr4Y

You can also find more information regarding the schedule of events, course descriptions, etc. on the Ironman Switzerland website.

Theresa is also racing - thank goodness, because I surely could not have trained for an Ironman without her! And I seriously would not have even signed up in the first place if it wasn't for the email I received one day last October with the subject line that read "Sign up!!!!!", which had me shouting expletives from my office before I even opened the email. Obviously, I succumbed to the peer pressure once again. And this time it even looks like Amy will make it to the start line of the race....4th time's a charm for her (knock on wood!).

We will be traveling around Switzerland for a week or so after the race and will then head to Poland for another week to visit our friend Heather who lives in Warsaw. Should be a fun trip, I'll be glad when the race is over!

Ironman Sendoff - 7 days and Counting!

At the suggestion of Vince, Theresa decided to throw the 3 of us a party before we leave for Ironman. Parties at the Urban's are always fun, especially when Diego makes Sangria!

The Brazil girls brought us some fun gifts including snacks for the bike ride and the plane, glow bracelets (yes, we'll be finishing in the dark) and sparklers! We had a good time lighting a few out on the deck. And thanks to Charlotte and Bob who gave us gift cards to the bike store in $14.06 increments. Unfortunately the sangria got to my head first and it took me a while to catch on that it was in reference to 140.6 - the total mileage of an Ironman. Duh! So creative! It was great end to the long weekend!

The Perfect Flavor

Anyone who knows me knows that I have an incurable sweet tooth, and LOVE ice cream. I heard they were giving away ice cream at the finish of the MS ride this weekend in Charlottesville and shortly after getting off my bike I went in search of it. I mean, I had almost stopped at the Dairy Queen we biked past about 30 miles into the ride! This was my dream come true! Sure enough, fantastic homemade ice cream. Nothing could be better on a 100 degree day! After talking to the vendor for a few minutes, I realized from her brochure that she graduated from SBC. Even cooler!

This girl owns her own ice cream company, The Perfect Flavor, which makes custom ice cream. She uses all organic, local, seasonal ingredients, will create any concoction you dream up, and will ship it on dry ice anywhere. This is really cool I thought! And the ice cream was so yummy!

When I got back to the hotel room, I decided to look up her website, curious about how much this might cost. Clearly, it was going to cost more than the ice cream from the grocery store. I knew that, but when I clicked on the website and saw the price, I thought I was seeing things - surely those weren't the actual prices! For ice cream? This couldn't possibly be right! How much do you think a pint of ice cream such as this would cost? Take a wild guess, and then check out the website: http://www.perfectflavor.com/

I'm still stunned. So much for my plan to invent my own flavor and ship it to all my friends! Maybe someday I'll win the lottery...it was really good.

I'm sure this girl would be horrified to know that on the drive home, we stopped at Dairy Queen. My favorite!! I mean not only is it not organic, local, seasonal, etc. ice cream, but then I go and put non-organic candy bars in it!! The horror! But it was oh so good...

The Scorcher

I think that's what the "Tour de Vine" should be renamed after this weekend. The scorcher it was! MS Ride #2. Theresa and I had great plans when we signed up - 100 miles each day to get some serious miles in before Ironman. We realized earlier in the week though that based on the weather forecast of temperatures approaching 100, with heat indexes of about 110, we might have to revise our plans.


Day 1. Despite our best attempts to get an early 6:30am start to beat the heat, some mechanical difficulties delayed us until 7:40am. At that time, it was probably a mere 80 degrees or so with 99% humidity. There was a nice fog over everything. We took it slow from the start, determined not to have to cut our ride short due to heat stroke. Fortunately there was a decent amount of shade on the ride and rest stops every 8-12 miles with lots of ice and towels soaked in ice water for us to cool off.

We managed 75 miles in total, which I really do think has to be equal to 100 miles on a good weather day. The last 5 miles were brutal, completely exposed to the sun. The homemade ice cream at the finish line helped to ease the pain though and thankfully we could head back to the hotel and crank up the AC after the ride. A few hours later we went back out to the finish line party for wine tasting and then found our way to a Mexican restaurant we heard had great margaritas. Well...the food was great. The drinks...disgusting!! We knew we were in trouble just looking at them! A few sips was all either of us could manage.

Day 2. We decided not to ride. Biking in 100 degree weather for one day was enough for us, so we decided we'd get up at 5:30am, get a long run in before the true heat set in for the day, and spend the rest of the afternoon touring Monticello. It was a great day, though still unbelievably hot!



Most importantly, between Theresa and I (and all our wonderful family and friends who donated to us!), we raised over $900 to help find a cure for MS.

175 Miles Closer to Ironman & $355 Closer to a Cure for MS

For the third year in a row, I signed up for the MS ride that follows a route from Richmond to Williamsburg on Saturday and then back to Richmond on Sunday. Round trip that's 150 miles, unless of course you're training for an Ironman and feel compelled to do an extra 25 miles on Saturday. :-)

(My bike, loaded down w/snacks for the ride.)

This year, Governor of Virginia Tim Kaine, his security entourage, his wife, and their son, all participated in the ride. It's great to live in a state where the Governor is a cyclist! Although I have to say, he had about a minute head start on me and I still managed to drop him inside the first mile. I was debating what to say to him as I passed him, but also trying not to pass too close for fear of what his security guards might say or do. So in the end I just passed him nice and wide and didn't say a thing. Oh well.

(The ride starts in front of the Governor's mansion.)

(Governor Kaine in the white jersey, getting his number pinned on his back.)

(Rest Stop.)

As usual, my Grandmother was nice enough to pick up her smelly, sweaty, salty grandaughter at the finish line and take her home for a good shower and some gluten free treats. When I asked her where she would like to go for dinner, remembering the Easter fiasco, she replied with "anywhere other than that country club!" Works for me! We wound up at Outback Steakhouse so that I could indulge in a chocolate thunder from down under. It's not quite a chocolate waffle, but it would do.

Overall, it was a good (although HOT) weekend of cycling for a good cause. After 175+ miles on my bike however, I'm really not feeling like riding again anytime soon. Bummer I've got 6 weeks left of training.