On not to mention the post race food bonanza....we finish and find Trevor and John is the uber Sherpa hauling my backpack, Trevor's and his bike as we trudge to the car. He is a good 2 blocks ahead of us as we shuffle along dreaming of food and wine.
Quick stop at Albertsons for 4 10lb bags of ice and 2 boxes Epsom salt. Back at the condo and we have big plans to go out for BBQ.... until we get inside. No one wants to go out- so John continues is awesomeness and finds the local BBQ place, puts in our order in the nick of time and is out the door to go and get dinner.
Meanwhile I am contemplating really getting in an ice bath- after all I took one for 55 minutes that morning during the Ironman swim. I know it will do wonders for my legs...so I grab a Guinness and my ice and epson salt and hit the tub. It takes all I can muster to get in the ice bath- I slug down the beer. Now after and Ironman it goes straight to my head and I jump in. The goal is 15 minutes. At 9:46 I am shivering and miserable and I get out- I have suffered enough today, damn it.
Hot, hot shower and turn over the tub to Trevor. Meanwhile John arrives with pulled Pork for the guys and the most delicious bbq chicken for me. And of all things they had nachos - we are devouring the food- KP and John have been up nearly as long as we have and don't have the adrenaline surging nor the volumes of caffeine from the race. They are starving and crashing.
I dream of going to sleep, even hang a blanket on over the window to make it dark to sleep in. I lay there for an hour, 2 hours and want to sleep. Finally I nod off around 1 and am up at 3am - wide awake, as if my body says okay time to get up and do it all over again...not so much.
I lay there until 4 and give up and get up and eat- still in calorie deficit I have a sandwich and surf FB and the computer...Trevor rolls out around 6am hungry as well. The food makes me tired and I roll back to bed for an hour of solid sleep. I get up stiff but not too bad actually. I figure I can mainline caffeine all day and no biggie...
John is working on a ride back to SD and KP is packing for his flight. We head to the Convention Center to pick up my slot- no regrets handing over the $550 check for Kona. Lots of very happy and limping people in that room. People are beat up, war stories are starting and it is now fun to have survived the race.
We go to the awards lunch- great food and we eat and eat....Mike Reilly is the MC has says IMSG had the 2nd highest DNF in IM North American history, only 2nd to IM WI the year it was over 100 degrees. They pulled out over 40 ppl on the swim due to hypothermia and the others were a slow attrition due to not making the cut off for the bike and all the other horrendous stories of the horrific course. Close to 500 did not even show up to race due to weather, cold water, fear of the death march and more.
But we did it and made history- the 1st group to survive. In all other IM's I have done the line the next day to regisster for the following year is long.... I mean 100's of people. The line to register for IMSG 2011 was empty. Will be interesting to see how long it takes to sell out.
Rest of the day was ideal....we went hunting for the famous frozen custard - closed- after all it was Sunday- argh!! Plan B find some FroYo - closed- Sunday. Finally we settle for Cold Stone and it was good and then we shuffle to Starbucks and take some more caffeine.
Sitting in the sun reading the NY Times and drinking a latte was a much nicer way to spend the afternoon vs trudging up and down Red Hills Parkway.
We finished off the day with an outstanding dinner at the Painted Pony - delicious meal and superb bottle of wine and closed out the Ironman day.
Today is when the Ironman hangover hits...the race is over, body is wrecked and we had to pack up and make the drive home. Although we managed to eat our way from Utah to AZ to NV and finally to SD. And hit a few Starbucks as well.....all the bad foods we gave up during training are satisfying our cravings now.
Very sore, tired and beat up I arrive home to find a fansatic sign and cake from my kids
And a beautiful plant and card from my Mom......
Feeling the love and support at home.....so nice! And so many well wishes on FB, email and more. It is so overwhelming and amazing. Thanks Bryan from ErinBaker for the nice call and for all the support you guys give us....really I am often fueled by Breakfast Cookies. During the race many people saw my race kit and said "oh I would die for an Breakfast Cookie right now"
Love it all......and all the very cool people in this sport.
Congrats on a great race. Enjoy the recovery.
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