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Or shall I say, was?

Nearly a week has passed since I tempted fate with my very first ever 140.6mile endurofest that was the Ford Ironman Wisconsin-Madison. I can finally make my way up and down stairs without side-stepping, and I no longer live in a haze of short, fragmented thoughts and incoherent mumblings. But let me back up a bit, and take you to the day that officially made me an Iron(wo)man.
Racing Stripes and Mohawk Man

The days leading up to the race were a little hectic, but nothing we couldn't handle. The Gang and I headed down to Nashotah, Wisconsin, on Wednesday afternoon, where we stayed with AJ's family. We got up on Thursday and headed to Madison for the Gatorade open water swim in Lake Monona. Mmmm, algae sure tastes good in the morning. I wasn't too geeked to be swimming (am I ever?) and chilled for a while by the second to last buoy, chatted with AJ, and then rolled back. My shoulder ached and I just wasn't feeling it. Love it! We got out of our wetsuits and headed to State Street for some much needed food.
Time to swim!

After a great breakfast at the Sunroom Cafe (which had turkey bacon, and I hope I don't offend anyone when I say its not nearly as good as real bacon), we went back to the Terrace to get our race packets. The lines were long, the people were silly (let's just say: "Spandex Everywhere"). At the expo, I used a TriggerPoint ball on my shoulder and the pain magically went away. YAY! We then we loaded back up in the car, dropped AJ at his parents', and headed to Gigi's in Whitefish Bay. Gigi is phenomenal. She cooked us a delicious pasta dinner with chicken and homemade sauce, and even had gluten free noodles and loaf of gluten free bread for me and Adam. We ate, talked about a lot of random things, and just chilled out. Whitefish Bay is a cool town, too. Very beautiful, close to Lake Michigan.

The next morning, Gigi made us an eggs and bacon breakfast and then she got ready to head to Madison herself (to pick up her packet and settle in at her hotel). We headed to Madison as well, but stopped in Nashotah on the way for a morning ride.

We rode around some amazing countryside. I could honestly say that I could happily live in that area. We rode around low traffic roads, with beautiful tree-lined roads and rolling hills. Smooth pavement. Low traffic. Just a great 20-mile ride. We took it easy, got the lead out of our legs, and then headed back to Madison for good.

Relaxing in the hotel

My parents arrived around the same time we did, and they joined us for the athlete's banquet. It was good, for people who eat gluten, I suppose. Adam and I braved the potato bar, and thew on some meat sauce for flavor. It was actually pretty good!

We also got to see some inspirational videos, including a speech by Paula Newby Fraser and the National Anthem by Brandon from BrandonsMarathon.com. Brandon would be competing in the race on Sunday as well, and he's an opera singer from New York. Pretty cool!

The boys were pretty excited for race day, I think. There was much dancing and giddyness to be had, and they had it!

Stay tuned, I'm going to write up the race report soon. It's been a busy week!

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