140.6 – The morning after
Photos: The room decorations Cara, Sparkle, and Sunshine left for us; the Athena/Clydesdale awards.
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After getting to bed at 1:30 having just done an Ironman, I figured I’d be down for the count until at least mid-morning…unfortunately, Mother Nature had other ideas. I ended up getting up about 6:30 to go to the bathroom (probably more than most of you wanted to know, but hey—bodily functions rock), and when I came back out to go back to bed, Vardo was up and checking the pictures Sparkle had taken on her camera. At that point, we both decided we weren’t going to sleep any more—my legs were sort of twitchy and I think we both had extra adrenaline or endorphins or something running through our veins.
We got up, showered, and decided to head over to the expo again to check out the finisher’s gear. The selection over there was more than underwhelming, but I still walked away with a license plate frame and a red fleece vest. After that, we started sorting through the special needs bags that had been unceremoniously dumped on the lawn. Vardo needed to find both of her bags (thankfully, Jenny and my Sherpa crew followed directions very well and had grabbed my run bag Sunday night, and I had no need to get my bike bag back). As we were digging through the piles looking for her bags, Jeremy wandered by and helped us sort. Eventually we found her run bag, but as we were sorting through the bike bags, I knew I needed to eat breakfast or it was going to get ugly, so I bailed and headed into the hotel to find food. She eventually found her bike special needs, so all was well.
As I sat at the bar in the hotel restaurant (the only seat I could get in a short amount of time), I talked with a guy who actually took a nap in T2 because he was so cold and wanted to warm up, and another guy was telling us about a guy he came across on the bike course who had 5 flats—so all told, I was pretty darn thrilled with my race. After breakfast, my family came over and helped Vardo and me cart all of our stuff down to our cars before the awards ceremony. After another round of hugs, they took off, and I headed over to the awards ceremony to meet up with Sue and Michele (and Vardo, who was having breakfast with her family).
The awards ceremony was fairly uneventful, although I did end up coming in second in the Athena class so I got to go up on stage for the second time that weekend…but this time, instead of a scale, I came home with a plaque, a Timex Ironman watch, a pair of socks, and a Fuel Belt flask. Not a bad weekend for swag, all told…
Following the awards ceremony, we all went our separate ways—yet another round of hugs, then we loaded up into our vehicles and took off. It was pretty odd, though—all of a sudden, the weekend was over, and it was back to life as normal…although I no longer knew what normal was.
On the drive back to my place, I had to stop a couple of times to get out and stretch a little—turns out my legs were insanely fatigued and things were not really thrilled with sitting in a car for too long at a time. After a quick stop at Theresa’s (where I got more hugs from her kids and from Doug), I headed home…only to find my garage and front entry way decorated with congratulations banners, balloons, and streamers, courtesy of the same crew I had just left (that’d be the Whitemarsh clan). It was a very cool way to come home (although it threw my neighbors for a loop).
So, there, on Monday night, I unloaded my car, started the laundry process, and called it a day…and ended my first full day as an Ironman and my first Ironman weekend…and what a weekend it was.
We got up, showered, and decided to head over to the expo again to check out the finisher’s gear. The selection over there was more than underwhelming, but I still walked away with a license plate frame and a red fleece vest. After that, we started sorting through the special needs bags that had been unceremoniously dumped on the lawn. Vardo needed to find both of her bags (thankfully, Jenny and my Sherpa crew followed directions very well and had grabbed my run bag Sunday night, and I had no need to get my bike bag back). As we were digging through the piles looking for her bags, Jeremy wandered by and helped us sort. Eventually we found her run bag, but as we were sorting through the bike bags, I knew I needed to eat breakfast or it was going to get ugly, so I bailed and headed into the hotel to find food. She eventually found her bike special needs, so all was well.
As I sat at the bar in the hotel restaurant (the only seat I could get in a short amount of time), I talked with a guy who actually took a nap in T2 because he was so cold and wanted to warm up, and another guy was telling us about a guy he came across on the bike course who had 5 flats—so all told, I was pretty darn thrilled with my race. After breakfast, my family came over and helped Vardo and me cart all of our stuff down to our cars before the awards ceremony. After another round of hugs, they took off, and I headed over to the awards ceremony to meet up with Sue and Michele (and Vardo, who was having breakfast with her family).
The awards ceremony was fairly uneventful, although I did end up coming in second in the Athena class so I got to go up on stage for the second time that weekend…but this time, instead of a scale, I came home with a plaque, a Timex Ironman watch, a pair of socks, and a Fuel Belt flask. Not a bad weekend for swag, all told…
Following the awards ceremony, we all went our separate ways—yet another round of hugs, then we loaded up into our vehicles and took off. It was pretty odd, though—all of a sudden, the weekend was over, and it was back to life as normal…although I no longer knew what normal was.
On the drive back to my place, I had to stop a couple of times to get out and stretch a little—turns out my legs were insanely fatigued and things were not really thrilled with sitting in a car for too long at a time. After a quick stop at Theresa’s (where I got more hugs from her kids and from Doug), I headed home…only to find my garage and front entry way decorated with congratulations banners, balloons, and streamers, courtesy of the same crew I had just left (that’d be the Whitemarsh clan). It was a very cool way to come home (although it threw my neighbors for a loop).
So, there, on Monday night, I unloaded my car, started the laundry process, and called it a day…and ended my first full day as an Ironman and my first Ironman weekend…and what a weekend it was.
posted by roehr @ 1:37 PM
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