Fun in PCB

I got here yesterday afternoon after uneventful flights from Chicago to Atlanta (change to EST) and then Atlanta to PCB (change back to CST). Shelley picked me up and we made the short drive to her gorgeous condo. Below is the view from the balcony:

I quickly dumped all my crap in the condo, and then we suited up to go for a ride. Shelley brought her son Eric's road bike for me to ride. It has toe clips. I need to adjust the position a little bit before race day, but basically the bike is the right size for me.

suited up to go for a ride, sporting brand new LAS Squalo helmet

Shelley suited up to ride, also in some nice compression socks!

Fueling up after a 7-hour door-to-door journey

We met up with Shelley's friend, Dennis, and drove out onto a road to do a 1-hour ride. When we turned around, I decided it was a good time to pee, and in fine tradition, Shelley snapped a pic of me:

Shelley had a stripped seat post bolt, and Dennis fixed it as well as possible so we could finish riding.

After the ride, we got new bolts for Shelley's seat post and then had dinner, made a trip to Walmart for provisions, and then she and I both passed out while watching The Love Guru.

This morning I'm volunteering at the Gatorade swim, which should be fun, and then I hope to do some running and sunning! Weather forecast looks awesome for the next few days, including race day!

This is a great place, and I'm so glad I decided to come on down and support some friends!

The Fun Parts of IMLP

I think this picture from Friday, July 18 pretty much sums it up. It was taken on the deck of the awesome house I stayed in with Shelley and Cindy. Shelley and I are both going back to race IMLP in 2009, and we will be staying in the same house!!! We sort of established a tradition this time that whenever one of us was on deck and someone else was arriving at the house or just driving or walking within sight, we'd flash them. I know there were at least a few appreciative passersby, even if there wasn't much to see when I was the one flashing!

Shelley is a real Crackhead enabler, I have to say. The Hello Kitty panties are a gift from her to me last year, and the Barbie crown and earring set are from her to me this year. The Tootsie Roll socks are just socks I got for myself. In case you would like some for yourself, head to Joy of Socks. They have lots of cool socks, and bonus, they almost work as compression socks!

If you zoom in on the photo (and yes, I know you are doing that), you will see a series of reddish dots just above my right nipple. Those are from something or somethings that stung me on Tuesday, July 15 while doing my last ride before leaving for Lake Placid. Cindy calls them my bee stings, as opposed to my tits which are just normal mosquito bites. Sorry, but I've never had anything in that department! You'd think at least the bee stings or whatever they were would provide some enhancement, but NOOOOOOO.

Later this same evening, Shelley and I had a really nice dinner and some wine on the deck, and then we headed into downtown Lake Placid for a walk--about 1/2 mile from the house. I left my Barbie crown and earrings on since I was feeling rather festive. I'm pretty sure I got a number of strange looks, but I know I was all smiles. We went to visit a mutual friend at his hotel, but he wasn't there, and I guess his wife wasn't too appreciative of our visit or message, which probably came across as two drunk chics asking for her husband. Oh well--we were having fun!

The picture below (that I lifted from Shelley) was taken after Shelley and I had gone riding the same morning on the run course. I bought pirate socks for Shelley, Cindy and me, and we all had fun wearing them, but I can't tell you how much fun it was wearing them while riding! Shelley was also wearing streamers that I had given her, and we were quite the sight! Many of the people who were doing the race had their game faces on and were confused by the sight of us, but several athletes got the joke/fun aspect and would smile and give us high fives or other gestures of approval.





















I don't think I have ever had so much fun in my life, I mean really. Sure, I had my worst Ironman performance in 5 years, but I have put that aside to focus on all the great things that happened during the last week:

• I drove 850 miles straight by myself in 13.5 hours on Tuesday--from New York to home! This proved to me that I can do an Ironman and then do another Ironman of driving. You may think the drive was boring (OK, so I had to speed through Canada), but for some reason it was just another opportunity to apply my focus on something and get it done.
• I got to be a part of other athlete's successful days. Cindy rocked the course, and I am so happy for her! Other friends of mine did the same. So what if it didn't happen to me. And the best part is nobody (at least to my face) said anything remotely like "you suck" to me.
  
• I learned some do's and don'ts for riding and running in the rain. Obviously, if I ever have to do it again, it won't be such a big deal to me.
• I got to be taken care of for a few days. By good friends, and by total strangers. It was the best!
  
• I set a new PR for number of times I peed in a single day. It had to be well over 50 times!
• I think other than during the actual race, I spent more time laughing than doing anything else!

While yesterday morning was an emotional blowout for me (pretty normal post-IM crap), by yesterday evening I was already looking forward to my next adventures--NothingMan is coming up, and I've already got a secret hardcore schedule prepared for 2009 that is beginning to take shape.

In the meantime, I am still a bloated pig with all the extra water I am carrying around--I look nothing like in the pictures above--I'm up about 6 pounds--and while still pretty tired, I'm actually going to go for a short swim today and looking forward to a weekend outdoors.

Life is FUCKING AWESOME!!!