IM Coure d’Alene
Submitted by: Sarah Hackler
Race Date: Posted June 24,2007
Pre-race: The Journey
Trying to write about my whole Ironman experience is crazy. I’m honestly struggling to find the right words. People keep telling me how crazy I am for doing an Ironman and asking me how the race was. The first thing that I tell them is that it was fun. That might not make sense to you, but I can honestly tell you that the race was FUN. I enjoyed the scenery, saw my friends kicking butt out there all day long, and … oh yeah… swam 2.4 miles, biked 112, and ran 26.2.
Everyone says that the race is the easy part… that once you get through all of the training, you’ve done the hard part. Well, they’re right. By no means was the race easy, but it was nothing compared to falling into bed thoroughly exhausted EVERY night for months, dragging myself out of bed early to get in an extra workout, and going for countless long rides and runs. By the time we got to the starting line, it was clear that we’d all make it to the finish line. We had put in all of the work… and were ready to reap the rewards.
The journey to the Ironman starting line began a LONG time ago… we first started talking about doing CdA in the spring of 2006, signed up in June, and officially started training in October. Every once in a while during training, I’d write about what was going on… and that document ended up being over 10 pages… which included nothing about the race! At the risk of being compared to Mike Gaw, I decided not to include all of that in my race report. J Instead, I’ll just list the training highlights.
· June 26, 2006: Sign-ups began… emails were flying all day as more and more people signed up for the race. What started out being a handful of TNT alums talking about doing an Ironman turned into a BIG group. While we lost a few people along the way, there were still over 20 of us who did the race.
· Peachtree Road Race 2006… ONLY a 10K. This was a nice, short training run… until the Boss decided that we should run back to our cars after the race. We sat around at the finish for well over an hour and then started running back. BAD TRAINING DECISION #1… it was HOT and much more hilly on the way back, and we had no water. I was ready to slit my wrists by the time we got back to the start.
· I LOVE the Acworth women’s race. Amy and Lee had a full house the night before the race as we all ate dinner there and slept over. The race itself was a blast. I was really enjoying the new bike, and I had a good, solid day. Afterwards, Andy thought it would be a good idea to run 13 miles at Columns. BAD TRAINING DECISION #2 (why do I always listen to him???) … again, it was HOT, and we didn’t have any water. The first 5 miles out on the road were OK, the next 3 on the trail were a little rough, and the last 5 back on the road were BRUTAL. I’m not sure which one was worse – this one or the run home from the Peachtree. When I’m having a really bad day, I just remember one of those runs… and I realize that I’m not as bad off as I could be. J
· We did the SC Half on my birthday weekend in the fall. The race itself was tough, but the weekend was a lot of fun. I was able to finish the race thanks to Duane… who made me keep running when all I wanted to do was shoot myself in the head. (One of my race memories… I was running with Duane and turned my head to spit. Duane turns to me and says, “That’s what I love about triathlons. Girls spitting!” I can think of a whole lot of things about triathlons that are WAY cooler than girls spitting!)
· FREEZING training ride in Cumming with Brent – Alberto and Renee were supposed to ride with us, too, but they wimped out because of the cold. I was wearing 4 shirts, a jacket, bike shorts, leg warmers, fleece-lined tights, 2 pairs of socks, shoe covers, and 2 pairs of gloves. Luckily, our water bottles didn’t freeze! I consider it a moral victory that I even attempted the ride.
· My first 100 mile ride was at the Silver Comet with Alberto. We started pretty late and rode until it was almost dark. At one point, I was trying to eat a GU when all of a sudden there was a big hill. I know what those of you who are familiar with the Comet are thinking, and yes, there really was a hill. I wasn’t ready for it and was trying to eat GU and drink water. I ended up falling over but managed to save the GU. Alberto said it was like watching an alcoholic trying to save a beer.
· After doing nothing but training since October, it was nice when the 2007 racing season got here. We started off with St. Anthony’s and Gulf Coast, and there were PR’s all around. Brian Rell going down the day before St. Anthony’s was a bummer, but we’re glad that he’s back at it and racing Florida with us in November. At both races, I had a great swim/bike… and then a TERRIBLE run… I keep telling myself… one of these days I’ll figure out how to run.
· Until this spring, I had never ridden in the GAPS. The first time I rode there, we went with a BIG group and had all sorts of problems. We made it up Hogpen, the toughest climb, and on the way down, Anna fell, and I got a flat. Why in the world I was riding on my new race wheels in the GAPS I’ll never know. Of course, I had no idea how to change a tubular. Dave Dashiell and Mike helped me change the flat. Mike told me that it looked like there was enough glue on the rim to hold the new tire on there… but to be careful when I was going downhill and around a corner… ummmm… this was the GAPS. I was going to be going downhill and around a corner A LOT that day. He told me to take the downhills slowly… so I did. I was ALWAYS the last one down. The last descent, Matt Thatcher stayed behind me because it was kind of tricky. I guess that I was on my brakes pretty hard, and he told me that he’d never smelled burning carbon bike brakes before. J Because of all of our problems, we ended up cutting the ride short, so on the way home, Berto and I stopped by the Comet for another 30 or so miles. We knew that we needed to get our miles in, and we did it. I felt pretty good about my effort that day. It would have been so easy just to drive home.
· 2 x 65 at Cartersville… longest ride EVER. I was by myself for a lot of the day, and I rode with Lee a lot too. I was getting bored toward the end, and I started cheering out loud any time we made a turn… thinking that I had just gotten myself one turn closer to being finished. It kept me going! This day gave me a big sense of accomplishment. I knew that after 130 miles, I’d be able to get through 112 at the race. Although in the parking lot when I got off the bike, I wondered to myself how in the world I would be able to run a marathon after all of that…
· Back in the GAPS – This was our last long ride a couple of weeks out from race day. After an hour straight swim up at Mary Alice Park, we did the back 3 twice. It was a long day of climbing… but it was fun. Amy, Lee, and Kristy rode one loop with us and then SAG’ed the second loop. Karen ended up joining them. They apparently had all sorts of fun hanging out, laughing, and eating ice cream in the car while Brent, Alberto, Jennifer, and I were working our butts off on round 2. I surprised myself that day… I definitely wasn’t fast, but I did A LOT of climbing and felt good about the workout… and the upcoming race.
The Trip
We had an EARLY flight out of the ATL on Wednesday before the race. I was on the same flight as Andy, Kristy, and Nancy. We all met up at the gate an hour or so before the flight. I thought I’d call Lee and Amy to see if they were up yet and on their way to the airport. It turns out that they were already there HOURS before their flight. (Ironically, they were the ones stuck at the airport forever since all United flights were grounded that morning. It paid off to be on Delta!) The flight to Salt Lake was boring… once we landed there we had a TWO HOUR layover, so we got something to eat, met up with Karen, and then started playing cards. Clearly, the Marino’s don’t play a whole lot of cards… J The flight to Spokane was a little more fun. I sat next to a man from FL who was doing the race, and we talked for a while. Before I knew it, we had landed… we hitched a ride into CdA with Kristy and Nancy since the Amlicke’s were so delayed and stopped to eat at (of course) Subway on the way.
Our house was AWESOME! We had a great set-up with PLENTY of room… not too far from transition, and it was perfect. Our group definitely traveled in style! There were even fresh strawberries growing in the back yard! One of the houses down the street was decorated with a whole bunch of signs… it was fun walking past that house all week… here’s just a sample of what they said:
Spandex isn’t for everyone. (That one made me think of Brian Rell.)
6 months of training, and that’s the best you can do?
My wife is kicking your butt… again.
You’re almost there – NOT!
The signs were funny, and there would be a new one each time we walked by – definitely entertaining!
Before the race, we didn’t do a whole lot. We ran around town when we first got there, and that was nice. It felt good to get moving after sitting around for so long in a plane, at the airport, and in the car.
We swam every morning before the race Thursday-Saturday, and that was fun… I mean, it’s swimming… of course it’s fun! I tested out the new wetsuit and liked it well enough. The first day I swam the whole race course nice and easy, and the next two days, I swam just enough to loosen up a little. We biked and ran some too… drove the race course one day… and saw just how TOUGH it was going to be. [Carole had ridden the course earlier in the week and compared it to a hard Tugaloo. After the race, she admitted that it was WAY harder than Tugaloo – more like an easier version of the Gaps.] Even so, I knew that we were well-prepared and was anxious for race day to get there.
The night before the race, I had a good dinner (thanks to Chef Beth), checked my email (thanks to everyone for all of the messages of encouragement), and went to bed.
The Race: Let the Craziness Begin!
4 AM the next day arrived early. I woke up, got dressed, and tried to force down some oatmeal. I was NOT hungry, but I knew that I needed to eat. We eventually made our way down to the transition area, got our stuff all set up, and came back to the house to relax just a little bit longer. Finally, it was time to head down to the start. We all walked down there together, crossed over the timing mat to get to the beach, and tried to pass the time until the start.
Swim
The swim is supposed to be the easy part, right? It usually is for me, anyway. Getting ready to start the swim on the beach, it had to have been below 50 degrees and was WINDY. The water was definitely choppy (reminiscent of St. Anthony’s 2006). I figured that I didn’t really need to warm up for the swim… after all, it was FREEZING out, and how much do you really need to warm up for a race that’s going to take you all day??? I wished everyone good luck on the beach and walked down to the water’s edge with about 15 minutes to go until the start. I gradually made my way into the water, swam out about 10 strokes, and then came back in. I looked around for Dave Hoeller on the beach… I wanted to draft off him J … but I couldn’t find him anywhere, so I just lined up beside some random people and waited for the start. As I stood there, I had a hard time believing that the race was finally here. We had been training for so long that it seemed kind of weird to be finally getting lined up for the start of the race. With a few minutes left to go, the announcer started talking about how rough the water was, and he even gave us the option of skipping the swim and just doing a duathlon. Why in the world would anyone want to do that? Why would you want to skip the best part??? I could see that the water was rough, but I hadn’t realized quite how rough it really was until that point. All of a sudden, some girl was singing the national anthem, the cannon went off, and I was running into the water with over 2,000 of my closest friends.
I had been terrified of the swim start ever since I read one of Mike Gaw’s race reports about getting dunked a million times and getting beaten up throughout the race. I remember him saying that the water around him never really cleared up for the ENTIRE 2.4 miles. I had seen crazy videos of swim starts. Dave Hoeller, the jerk, sent me some pictures of Ironman swim starts just before the race, and they looked completely NUTS! With all of this negative build-up, I ended up being pleasantly surprised by the swim start. It wasn’t TOO rough for me. I got knocked around a little bit, but nothing major. I started in the very front row, towards the middle, and it worked out pretty well. I gradually made my way over to the buoys and joined in with the pack. It was a little crazy at the turn buoys but not too bad. After rounding the second turn and starting to head back in to the shore, I felt someone totally swimming on top of me and hitting me. I tried to be aggressive like Carole had told me to be, but I was getting BEAT UP. When I was finally able to look and see who was messing with me, I noticed that it was a guy in a silver cap… a pro. Maybe he was mad that a girl was beating him, so he decided to beat me up??? Whatever, I got away from him and had an uneventful rest of the first loop.
It was a little hard getting out of the water and heading back out for the second loop, but once I got going again, I felt OK. I was in a good rhythm for pretty much the whole second loop… until it started getting more crowded after the last turn buoy. I realized that we must have been catching up with some of the swimmers who were just finishing their first loop. The last 400 meters or so of the swim were the worst. There were people swimming SLOW breaststroke right in front of me, and the weaker swimmers were all over the place. I got kicked in the face HARD by some guy and had to stop for a second to readjust my goggles. (And let me tell you, if you haven’t worn Swedish goggles, it KILLS getting kicked in the face when you’re wearing Swedes.) I kept looking in front of me and just trying to find a good line in to shore. After what seemed like forever, my fingers brushed the ground, and I got to my feet and ran onto the shore. It took me just over an hour, 1:01.27 to be exact. I was surprised that it had taken me over an hour to do the swim, but given the conditions, I’ll take it. And let’s face it… it’s not like I was going to win the race or anything.
Getting out of the water, there were people cheering EVERYWHERE! It was fun running past them up the beach and to the transition area. Two volunteers helped me out of my wetsuit, and I was off to grab my transition bag. (Why can’t they have wetsuit strippers at every race??? It was SO nice not having to struggle out of my wetsuit by myself like I do at other races.) I accidentally went down the wrong row to find my bag. I thought it would be easy just to step over the bags and go to the next row, but I was wrong. Somehow, I managed to trip over a bag, and I did a face plant right there in the grass. There was a collective gasp from all of the spectators and volunteers who were around… I just stood up and kept going down the row. The volunteer who was supposed to be helping me finding my bag was standing around not doing anything… I found my bag easily (thanks to the orange towel that we cut up and tied to our bags) and was off to the changing tent.
The tent was relatively uneventful too. There were only a few girls in there at that point, so there was plenty of room. The volunteer who was helping me kept asking me what I wanted her to do… and I wasn’t sure! I put on my socks and shoes and grabbed my Clif bars to put in my pocket. Since it was pretty chilly outside, I figured I should wear my arm warmers, so two volunteers helped me put them on… let me tell you, it’s tough putting on arm warmers when you’re wet! I grabbed my race number, helmet, and sunglasses… and went to get my bike. My bike was very easy to spot… in the 4th row, right underneath a GIANT pine tree. In fact, it was impossible to get my bike off the rack without getting hit in the face by pine needles! It’s fun being in T1 with bikes all around, but I knew that when I got into T2, there would be PLENTY of bikes there ahead of me. I enjoyed my short lead while it lasted!
I made it past the mount line, jumped on my bike, clipped in, and was off. Total time in T1: 5:38, not bad! 1 down, 2 to go!
Bike
Carole kept telling us to take the first bike lap easy. I tried… but it was hard. I knew that I’d be in great position after the swim… and that people would be flying past me on the bike. I told myself that I just had to let them go. I didn’t want to wreck my day because I took the bike out too hard. It still took almost five miles for my heart rate to settle down where I needed it to be. I made it through town and got out by the lake – it’s BEAUTIFUL out there. People were passing me, and I just let them go. I waited a little while to start eating and drinking because Carole told us that we needed to let our stomachs settle after the swim. I started drinking out by the lake and went to put the bottle back in my Hydrotail… huh, that’s weird. Why isn’t the bottle going back in? I really had to work hard to put it back in the cage, but I didn’t think too much about it.
Heading back out of town the other way, I heard someone behind me yell, “Shark!” It was Trey… I figured he’d be the first of the crew to pass me. It sure didn’t take him too long. We chatted for a minute or two, and he was off. The next time that I drank, I really couldn’t get the bottle put back in. I knew something was wrong, so I just rode with the bottle sitting on my aero bars. On the way into Hayden, I got passed by the guy who had sat next to me on the plane to Spokane… that was kind of fun. He looked great! Then I heard someone else behind me yelling, and I knew it was Brent. He had a great swim and was looking strong on the bike. I asked him to check out my Hydrotail… he rode up behind me, looked at it, and told me that it looked pretty low. He said to tighten the bottom bolt when I got the chance to stop… sounded easy enough to me. I followed his line around one of the crazy turns and then let him go – had to keep the heart rate down, and he’s WAY faster than me anyway.
When I finished my first 2 bottles, I decided it was time to work on the Hydrotail. I made it to the aid station at mile 30 and hopped off the bike. Good thing I had my multi-tool with me… Andy had taped it on the bike, so all I had to do was take it off. Easier said than done. I undid part of the tape but couldn’t quite reach it. What was I going to do? There were a couple of kids volunteering – I figured they’d have little fingers, so I asked one of them to reach in and help me with the tape. He finally got it for me. I started messing with the bolt and couldn’t get it to work. It was very frustrating. Andy passed me and was yelling to see what was wrong. I finally took the CO2 off my bike (it was almost rubbing against my tire, and I could see myself ending up like Mary at St. Anthony’s last year with a bunch of flats) and the other water bottles. I knew that I couldn’t use the Hydrotail, and since I couldn’t fix it, I had to go the rest of the ride with just one bottle. It ended up being fine… but I wasted 10 minutes standing on the side of the road unable to fix my bike. Oh well. Like Carole said, Ironman is about problem solving, and I had just solved my problem. I ate pretty well on the bike… had my 2 Clif bars and then switched to goose. (Oops, Alberto, I mean GU’s J.) Since I was only carrying one bottle on me, I made sure to get a new bottle at each water stop. Miles 25-45 of each loop were tough… we’d climb, get a nice downhill, and then lose all of that momentum at the bottom of the hill when we had to make a turn… only to have to start another climb right after the turn. I think that there was only one downhill all day where you could actually use your momentum to help you get up the next hill. Every other downhill forced you to turn at the bottom. I was VERY happy to get back into Hayden because I knew that I’d have a break from climbing for a little while. There were volunteers and spectators all over the place as we got back into town. I saw my parents just before the turn-around and then headed out for lap #2.
The second lap was more of the same… only slower. I figured I would have taken off my arm warmers by then, but I was still cold. I was feeling OK otherwise, so I didn’t need to stop for my special needs bag. I just kept going. I saw Barbara out by Hayden Lake, so that was fun. We got to the rough turn out there, and there was a girl all cut up sitting on the side of the road with a volunteer. As I went around that corner, I literally saw a pool of blood on the ground. I’m glad that I had slowed down enough not to have wiped out like that poor girl. By the time we got to the climbing section on the second lap, I was over the bike. A couple people were walking their bikes up one of the bigger hills, and I didn’t feel like they were going that much slower than I was! I stayed on the bike, though, knowing that it would be hard to start back up again if I got off. I really just kept plugging along. Those hills were ROUGH. I knew that the bike course was hilly, but I hadn’t planned on it being that difficult. Whenever I felt especially bad, I’d concentrate on eating and hydrating. I knew that if I’d ever get off the bike, I still had a LONG run in front of me, so I just tried to be smart about it. Jeff Caplan passed me with about 20 miles left to go, and I talked to him for a little while. It was fun wearing my All3 team outfit. Lots of people who passed me commented on the jersey and asked if I was from Atlanta.
I finally got back to Hayden… saw Elmo and his friend in the muumuu cheering for us (there were all sorts of INTERESTING spectators wearing weird outfits out on the course that day). After what seemed like FOREVER, I was back on Government and heading into town. I saw Mom and Dad again… they were with Beth back at the same spot where I had seen them before. I was so glad to be finishing the bike… I got to the dismount line, handed my bike to a volunteer, and ran into T2. Total bike time: 7:04.24. Much slower than I had planned on, but the course was VERY tough… and again, it’s not like I’m winning anything.
T2 was fine. I took off the arm warmers, changed my socks, put on my shoes, grabbed my visor and race belt… and was off. Again, the volunteers were great. I was worried about how I’d feel after the bike, but I wasn’t feeling too bad as I ran out of transition… cool! Total time in T2: 3:43.
Run:
So, starting out on the run, I felt fine… I kept thinking to myself how weird that was. I mean, I am NOT a runner, but I sure felt like one starting out. We ran past the lake down towards our house (it was just a little tempting to go run back home instead of out on the race course J), and I ran the whole time, just walking through the aid stations. I felt great! I saw Carole when I came back through the transition area, and she ran beside me for a few seconds. She just reminded me to take the first five miles SLOWLY. I laughed because I have only one run speed, and that is slow. I kept checking my heart rate, though, and it was perfect… right around 140 all day. Usually it’s much higher than that especially when I first start the run, but today it was awesome. I ran through downtown and headed for the section out by the lake… still feeling great. That’s when I started seeing people… Andy and Brent were killing it, heading back in to town as I was on my way out. I saw Dave a little while later… I liked his orange outfit – made it easy to spot him! Kate ran past me looking fresh as always. Man, that girl can run! Before I knew it, I was running up the hill and was at the turn-around. I started seeing more and more people – got passed by Trey – he was having a great race. Then the Hammer ran by. I was jealous that they were on their second loop when I was on my first. Oh well. I saw Karen and Alberto running together, Kristy, Duane, Jennifer, Bevan, Lee, Renee… everyone was looking great, and it was SO exciting seeing all of them out on the course. I held a consistent pace the rest of the lap, drank water at the aid stations, and took in a gel every three miles. Everything was perfect! I saw Mom and Dad coming back into town and before I knew it was back in front of the transition area – and it had only been 2 and a half hours!
Then all of a sudden, my Achilles was KILLING me. I thought I’d just walk a little bit… but it was SO painful. I finally realized that I would be walking the second lap. I knew I’d make it well under the cut-off, but I was disappointed that I wouldn’t be running. I decided to make the best of it… I kept a smile on my face, enjoyed the scenery, and got excited every time I saw one of my friends out on the course. I don’t remember a whole lot about the second lap… it just took a LONG time. I did get a big hug from Lee the last time our paths crossed before I finished.
There were spectators ALL OVER that run course. It was amazing! Everyone was clapping, cheering, and yelling people’s names. I can’t even describe how great it felt to get that much support and encouragement. People were blasting music on the side of the road and having parties. Once I made it past mile 20, I was relieved. There was ONLY a 10K left. I knew I could finish a 10K. I still wasn’t running though. I had been walking with a guy off and on for the last several miles. Once we got to mile 24, he tried to get me to run with him… but I just couldn’t. I took a few steps, and it was all I could do to keep walking. The bottom of my right foot was on fire. It almost felt like there wasn’t any more skin on the bottom of my foot. At mile 25, I decided that I would no longer feel like punching people if they told me that I was almost there… because I was.
Seeing the town of CdA coming back into view was so exciting. It was even more exciting when a volunteer told me that all I had to do was round the corner just ahead… and then make it 6 blocks (downhill) until the finish line! Whoever decided that the race should have a downhill finish was a GENIUS! No matter how bad I felt, I knew that I HAD to run in to the finish. Once I came around the corner, it was NUTS. I had seen Ironman videos before and had gone to Ironman Florida last fall to watch, but I still wasn’t prepared for this. There were people lining the streets, screaming my name, clapping and cheering. I saw Katy… then Trey and Andy jumped out and yelled for me… then Brent. I can’t even describe what it felt like running past all of them. We had put so much time and effort into all of this, and I was finally finishing my race. As I ran across the finish line, I heard, “Sarah Hackler, you’re an Ironman!” That was pretty amazing! Total run: 6:05.33 for a total time on the day of 14:20.43. Not too bad, I guess.
I finished and a volunteer made sure that I got my medal, hat, and T-shirt. Then she was trying to walk me over to the food tent, but I started seeing all of my friends. I told her that I’d be OK by myself… so she left and went off to help other people. Trey and Andy came and gave me a hug, and then Kristy. Then I saw my parents. They’d had a blast. They walked back to the house, and I went with Andy and Kristy to get some food. We ran into Dave right away who told us that they had run out of pizza but more was supposed to be arriving right away. I was STARVING. And guess what they had on the food tables… pretzels, bananas, oranges… who wants to eat the same food that they had for us out on the run course all day long??? Not me. They did have some bagels, so I tried one of them… and threw up right away. Yuck. I drank a little Gatorade and sat down. I felt better by the time the pizza arrived, so I had a piece… and then another… at that point, it tasted like the best thing I had ever eaten in my whole life. A few minutes later, we went back to the finish line and saw Karen and Alberto and Bevan. Lee finished right after them… it was just so amazing watching everyone. I was SO happy seeing all of my friends finish.
After all of that, the bottom of my foot was hurting so much that I could barely even walk. I held on to Trey and was trying to keep up with everyone. They were walking so much faster than me! Andy went with me to pick up my bike… definitely not what he wanted to do, but he was SO nice to help me out, and I really appreciated it. We made it back to the house, and I plopped down on the couch. I couldn’t believe it – we all did it! We were finally Ironmen!
After the Race:
After all of that craziness on race day, we were still up at 5 the next morning. Nobody slept well that night. We went out for an unhealthy breakfast and then headed over to the finishers’ tent to buy stuff… didn’t go crazy like Mike but got some good stuff. We picked up our special needs bags, checked out our race pictures, and finally got over to the awards banquet. Highlight of the day… Hammer qualifying for Kona… she ROCKS! I can’t wait to see how she does in Hawaii! They showed the race video at the awards ceremony… if you watch it, don’t blink because you’ll definitely miss me. Renee and Karen Lowe were both in the video… and I BARELY made it in. You can see half of my back for about half of a second. For anyone who wants one, I’ll be signing autographs later. J
I wish I’d been up for water skiing or hiking after the race… but no one felt like being particularly active. Instead, we drove to Kellogg (at the suggestion of our waitress.) It’s an old mining town that’s now a ski town… and apparently they have the world’s longest gondola ride or something like that. It was closed the day we went there, though. We drove around looking for some good scenery… and ended up driving through a very un-picturesque town called Smelterville. We finally made it back to CdA, and the rest is history.
I am THRILLED with my whole race experience and can’t wait to do another one. Game on, kids!
Special thanks to:
Carole Sharpless – this girl knows what she is doing! All of our group finished… and finished smiling. It was so great to have Carole’s insight, expertise, and sense of humor throughout this process. I can’t imagine that I would’ve gotten through this without her.
Maria and Gary – thanks for kicking my butt in the pool. For my other triathlons, I just kind of swam on my own… or I’d show up for practice once a week – on a good week! It REALLY makes a difference having a coach standing there on deck telling me what to do (even if you did make me swim a 200 fly!)
All of the guys at All3 – I don’t think that a week went by when my bike and I didn’t make an appearance at the store. Thanks for keeping everything in working order for me… when I always did my best to mess things up!
The Austin TEAM – you guys rock! I’m so sorry that our race was cancelled but look forward to watching ALL of you triathletes finish in Chattanooga. Thanks for a season full of great memories and laughs.
Mom and Dad – You guys sure picked a good one for your first triathlon-watching experience. I’m afraid that any other race you might come to would be a letdown. Thanks so much for making the LONG trek out to Idaho! It was great seeing you (and the signs) out on the course. I love you!
Beth and Katy – the best Sherpas ever. Thanks for everything! Beth, it’s too bad that you were sick up there… but we’re so glad that you came!
The Boss, Hammer, Leisure, Dale, Tamale Smuggler, Brent, and Ice… what can I say? I LOVE you guys. Training with you was such an experience!
Who’s in for Ironman 2008??? Bring it on!
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