The Hole-y bucket

I had a really nice 13 mile run this morning - felt great from mile 1 to mile 13. Finally!

I was sick in the fall, and took too much time off, and when I got back in the swing of training, I was only getting in (maybe) 1 swim, 1 bike, 1 run, and I had given up my personal trainer. (I used to do 2x swim, 2x bike, 2x run, 2x weight training every week).

So when I did get out and run, I was weak, out of breath, and barely spoke to the people I was running with. I thought it was because I'd gained about 10 pounds. But now I think I can blame it on the Hole-y Bucket.

Training is like pouring water into a bucket that has a small hole in it. Once your bucket is filled, you can keep it filled simply by topping it off regularly. But when you take too much time off, the bucket starts to empty and you have to put in a lot of effort to fill it up again. I finally feel like my bucket is [almost] full again.

I get it now - this is how I have to spend the rest of my life. It's not like reaching any other goal, where, once you reach it, you've reached it, like ringing the bell at a rock-climbing wall, or completing an Ironman. I have achieved those things. No one can ever take that away: it won't slip away through a small hole anywhere. But the health and fitness - the training - can (and does) slip away.

I have to stay on top of my bucket's contents for the rest of my life. Get used to it. My training regimen has to be here to stay. Every week, every month, every year. Like brushing my teeth, conditioning my hair - it's gotta be just something I do.

Thank God I think it's fun.

I am not alone!!

If you have access to Men's Journal (I don't subscribe, silly, Bob does!)... check out the article on pp. 55-60 of the March 2008 edition, and you will learn all about my "heart condition". 

It sounds almost exactly like me - all the way down to the "spot" on the author's heart - only he describes his as the size of a nickel, where mine is the size of a quarter.

The other key difference is that the author only gets PVC's, where I get those, plus VT's, A-Fibs, SVT's, and Brady's --- all day, all night. While it was a relief to know it's not all that unusual, the article ends like this:

Until your heart is in the bucket, that little spot will remain a mystery."

Which isn't really the "this will go away on its own very soon" answer I was hoping for.

Want to meet 5X Ironman champ Heather Gollnick?

... and train with her in Florida?

My friend John Shelp is a pro triathlete and top-notch triathlon coach. He and Heather are hosting a training camp March 6 - 9th in Sarasota Florida.

You can contact John at info@scsmultisport.com, if you have questions, or you can check out his blog and send him a comment. http://www.shelper.blogspot.com/ . He doesn't have a link there, but just comment him and he'll get back to you.

Valentine's 5K

This has been a great weekend. I talked with Greyhound yesterday and whatever problem he was having with his scrotum is all cleared up. I still am laughing that he had a drawing of his balls on his blog. bwahahahaha!! I'm still laughing. I know that the real problem is some remote muscle tear deep in his abdomen, and I do SINCERELY hope it gets better soon, but I can only remember the part about the berries. Someone save me from this bout of the giggles.

Then I started today with a great chat with Di - she always makes me laugh. I can't wait for CDA so we can hang out and crack each other up for three days in a row. I'm so glad that Bigun's irregular heartbeat that alarmed him for a few days has gotten back in normal rhythm. Thank God.

After hanging up with Di, Bobby and I went down to the Valentine's Day 5K at Lake Harriet in Minneapolis. In his last 5K he got a 35:24, so he wanted to see if he could beat that. Below is a group shot with Bobby, me, Terri, Marta, Laura, and Greg. It started out at 16 degrees, but by the time we finished it was 25, and it's 35 right now. (and that's ABOVE ZERO!!!) ;-)

Bobby scored a PR with a net time of 32:01!!!!!

He was so pleased he beat his mom by 4 seconds,  and I was so proud of him. All during the run he kept asking if I thought he was on pace to PR... it was so cute... he had such great focus, and I love that he is a "pace man". That means he could one day be Mr. Teenage Endurance Athlete. He's 9 now... so it could happen... wouldn't that be perfect??? ;-) We have four more 5K's in the Team Ortho series.

Last week IronLaura and IronGreg and Zurich and I went snowshoeing on the trails behind the house - it was so gorgeous. We went over to IronTerri's house (she lives on the other end of my neighborhood). After we got back, IronTriNick, IronRobert, and Ales were at my house for a going-away dinner that Bob made for Ales. Ales is our friend from the Czech Republic - Nick introduced us all last year, and he was back in the states for business for two weeks. It was great seeing you again Ales! I hope you enjoy the rest of your American tour, and then have a safe trip back home.

Bobby and Ally in front, then me, Nick, Robert, Laura, Ales and Greg.

Tonight we are having a sleepover with our friends the Andersons... Randy and Bob both love to cook, so they are making dinner for Bea and me. Their kids are friends with Bobby and Ally from school. I am sure wine will be poured, and rich food will be served, so I have to pace myself so tomorrow's long run doesn't kill me.

Have a great weekend everyone.

What... has it really been almost a month since my last post?

Arghhh - so much has been going on around here since I last posted from the Phoenix marathon/ blogger reunion weekend. I hardly know where to start.

I ran the St. Paul Winter Carnival half marathon last weekend with IronLaura and Erin (some of you met her in Phoenix - she promised she'd start blogging, but I haven't found her blog yet - have you? ;-) and a handful of other Gear West Tri Club runners. We saw Pharmie and Steve and I did take some pictures, but I still have to figure out how to get them from my PC to my Mac. It was lovely - 20's and only mildly windy. Laura and Erin ran ahead of me (would you believe I was talking and taking pictures), so they had to wait for me to finish, but I ran it in 2:14. I was happy enough.

I have my first ski race this weekend, but I have yet to get on my skis this year. Laura and I are hoping to get on them tonight after work. We will surely suck in the race, but at least we'll have cute outfits on and our matching hats, like last year.

I turned 46 on Superbowl Sunday and Bob gave me a Mac laptop for my birthday (which I got to open about a week early). So I've been going to Mac College - one hour a week - college in the mall - how great is that? Some young Mac savvy kid teaches me the little things that PC users need to unlearn. Like holding the "fn" button while deleting, so you can delete forward, not just backwards. And how to get to the end of a line of text in one move rather than holding down the right arrow one character at a time. (That was going to drive me crazy.) And how to enter calendar events in different colors for each family member. So now I must learn how to load pictures onto my blog. I JUST figured out how to get them from my camera to the Mac. 

Anyway, Laura and Greg had us over to watch the Giants beat the Patriots and TriNick,

 

Robert, IronKaren and IronTimmy came, too. Our friend from the Czech republic arrived on Saturday for a couple weeks, so Nick brought him over. The kids played with Zurich (who is seriously the most beautiful yellow lab) and everybody had fun. Thanks for the party Laura and Greg - I love you!

Oh - and here's some must see" 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej9wCko6dR4&feature=related 

Phoenix Rock-n-Roll Marathon

Well, Blogger doesn't seem to want to let me move my pictures or text around the page, so you are getting my race report backwards. (!!??) Has anybody else ever had that happen??? Anway, here is the weekend in reverse.

Here is sunset over Phoenix on Sunday. We climbed up Camelback Mountain after the marathon - it is a really technical climb requiring 4 points of contact a lot of the way, but so much fun to scramble over all those boulders to the top. But we made it and the sunset was awesome. It gets dark really fast, so we were stupidly descending in the dark much of the way. Still awesome, though.

This is me breaking a full sweat climbing up.

This is Erin and Sarah (Laura's sister) after the race. Erin PR'd and ran a 3:56. She and Lana ran together from start to finish! I got a 4:18, which I am happy with. Not my best; not my worst - right in the middle. After the finish I got to meet TriDogmom and IronShane! They have the cutest dogs and I let them have my popcicle. ;-) I can't believe I didn't take their picture seeing that I had my camera in my hand. Told ya I get stupid when I exercise.

This is me around mile 15 showing that I liked this band the best.

This is me getting smoked by TriDummy around mile 1. He started off so fast!!!

Here are Mark (my training buddy from home), Erin, Lana, and Sarah freezing while waiting for the gun to go off. It would turn out to be a beautiful day for running. It was Mark's first marathon and he was strong and cheerful the whole way. I lost him around mile 22 as I started getting a lot of phone calls - thankfully - because I was getting tired and wanted to walk a little. My last 3 or 4 miles were 11:05 pace! Thanks for calling everybody - that was relief.

Me and Lana before the start. No nerves!

Trimama, her friend Laura, TriDummy, Lana, Hugo, me and Sarah.

Erin has success before the start! Phew!!!!!

The blogger dinner at Macaroni Grill.

Trimama and Lana.

Sarah, IronGreg, and IrongirlNyhus at dinner.

Me and Commodore! It's been way too long, buddy. It was great seeing you, Carol and mighty Mo. Comm PR'd the half marathon with something crazy like a 1:46.

And I finally met Momo! Love, love, love her - how can you not? And Frankie is adorable and funny.

Trimama, IrongirlNyhus, me, Commodore and Lana.

It was so great to see so many bloggers out there! Afterward our races, DV joined us as our friend's house where we were staying and we made dinner and played poker. With pumpkin seeds as chips. Which kept getting eaten. DV ran the half and then jumped in his car to drive to the Grand Canyon - check out his pictures - they are great.

IrongirlNyhus, IronGreg, Erin and I had a great trip and had such a blast seeing Comm, Lana, Trimama, and their friends and family.

So that's the backwards report - Has anyone else had the problem where you can highlight but not drag that info to another place? Anyway, you get the picture - it was fun.

Sparkpeople

http://www.sparkpeople.com/

What I've learned so far:
1). That I eat most of my calories in the form of snacks - that I'm not a big eater of "meals".
2). That I eat between 2500 and 2900 caolories a day.
3). That a lot of calories come from my kids' crusts, and from "popping" things in my mouth without thinking about it. For example, while making a healthy 1/2 sandwich, I will "pop" one slice of cheese and one slice of turkey in my mouth while making it.
4). That I burn between 500 and 1200 calories per day.
5). That what I consider a "portion" is actually twice the size of the manufacturer's portion size (i.e. cereal!)
6). That the weight I gained in the fall when I was struggling with my heart and therefore not exercising at all, can be attributed to the 1000 calorie excess I was eating and not exercising away. I've kept that weight on with holiday junk (but tasty!) food and alcohol at parties during the holidays.

So, what I need to do to lose those 10 pounds is to cut out the mindless "popping" of food into my mouth, quit drinking (well, maybe except at the after party at the marathon this weekend), and toss out all the leftover holiday candy, including what's left in the box of See's Candies. I can't eat even the "but it's my favorite" junk.

I'll re-post about every week or so on this topic. I need to be 155 lbs to race and not feel like I'm lugging too much of myself along.

Little grammar lesson

Here is the Washington Post's Mensa Invitational which once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.



The winners are:

1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.

2. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole.

3. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

4. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

5. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

6. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.

7. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

8. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.

9. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

10. Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.

11. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)

12. Karmageddon: It's when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, and then the Earth explodes, and it's a serious bummer.

13. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

14. Glibido: All talk and no action.

15. Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem sm arter when they come at you rapidly.

16. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.

17. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

18. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.

I laughed my arse off especially at #2, #3, #8, and #17!!!!

Balmy day here in Minneapolis

It's 46 degrees here and awesome, so Terri and I ran the lakes downtown today. It was so nice to be able to take our gloves off and not have our fingers turn black and fall off from frostbite.
We were slow, though. Terri has the excuse that she hasn't run 10 miles since Zurich Ironman (June), but I have no such excuse. My excuse for being slow is that I have gained weight. Like 10 pounds. As of this morning I am 165 pounds of holiday drinking and eating everything in sight (which actually started before the holidays). I wonder if I can lose that before the Phoenix Rock-n-Roll marathon on Sunday. ;-) My heart rate wasn't really high or anything, there is just more of me to lug along and it's slow-going. Arghhhh. I started a food journal today. I've never been much of a dieter so this in itself is depressing.

The kids go back to school tomorrow, which is kind of sad, too. I loved having them around, and we had a really great vacation in Hawaii, and we have snow forts and snowmen in the front yard, and Bobby even tried cross-country skiing. But tomorrow it's back to the old schedule. The dreadmill of the school year. Arghhhh.

On the bright side, I will at least be able to get the house in shape. There is junk everywhere. All the Christmas stuff is still up, and the kids drop all their toys or books or papers or plates - really everything - just laying around for me to pick up. All that little miscellaneous stuff from the pockets of everybody's luggage and carry-ons is laying around, too. I think that may be why I'm in such a bad mood today. The clutter brings me down. In a couple days (like by tomorrow 3pm) hopefully everything will be picked up and put away and I'll perk up. If I've lost the 10 pounds by tomorrow that should help, too.

;-)

Whales!

After two vacations in Hawaii during whale season, I finally spotted the gentle giants! At the end of the day, as the kids were heading back into the water near sunset for more snorkeling, there it was. The plume of mist shooting up into the air. Then a black body, then tail. There were probably four whales together, and yes, I was quite far away, but they were surfacing and motoring around the island. I've never seen this. And I've even paid big bucks to be taken out on one of those "whale sighting excursions". Yea!!! I've always wanted to see this!

Anyway, first the kids swam in the hotel pool for a while. Here are Bob and Bobby by a little waterfall between pools.

Then we drove over to Waimea Canyon and Ko'kee State Park to hike to the falls. It was about a four hour hike and very beautiful, but also quite different from the Na'Pali hike. The kids loved the jungle. My calves are very tight.

While we were at the Waimea official "Lookout", a rainbow appeared inside the canyon:

Family pic:

But we were here to hike it, so we found the trailhead and began. Here is me with the kids probably getting a little too close to the edge:

We hiked about two hours to get here. On the way up, we met an Ottwa/Ojibwe Indian named Two Dogs, whom we hiked with for a while - super interesting guy. Anyway, he brought a drum with him and sang songs at the top of the canyon, and told us about them and what they meant. He also told us that Minnesota actually means "The Creator playing tricks with you". Makes sense considering that with all the lakes, you constantly have to drive around them whenever you are trying to get someplace.

He also said that a couple of elders in his tribe has passed away in the last year and he was singing for them. How cool was this.

Tomorrow our flight is at 11:30 p.m., so we have one more full day...

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year to all my blogging friends... you guys were such a beautiful source of inspiration, humor, friendship and comaraderie in 2007. Thank you. I've enjoyed meeting all of you, and look forward to the trips I have planned in 2008 with many of you. Bring on CDA, Vineman, Orca's Island, Ice Age Ultra, Phoenix R-n-R, Florida IM...et al. Blogging has really made the triathlon world smaller, and you are all such special people to me.

Here's a recap of yesterday on beautiful Kaua'i.

I went running just before dawn for about 8 miles. It was cloudy and cool-ish, and it rained a few times on the way inland. But after I turned around and headed back to the beach, the sun came out and there was a huge double rainbow behind me. I was starting to wonder why so many cars were stopping to take pictures until I realized the rainbow was their subject, not me. (tee-hee)

I showered, and we all headed out to the northwest shore. Here are Bobby and Ally at the trailhead for the hike. Notice how nice and clean and white their clothes are.

We hiked 4 1/2 hours through thick and very slippery clay-mud. The kids never complained, I was so impressed! It rained on and off all day. We all made it to "the beach", and then up another trail to the pointy cliff, then turned around. Too bad my Garmin battery is shot - it would have been fun to see how far and how high we climbed.

It was a trip that had its dangers. First, Bobby was totally in his adventurous element and took off. I mean, he was so far ahead of us we had no idea where he was. So the first hour was spent with Bob, Ally and me pressing on as fast as we could trying to find him and be assured he hadn't fallen off - it was extremely slippery and he was obviously traveling quite fast. We finally caught him, and he was muddy but fine and was actually really sorry when he saw how worried we were. After we re-grouped and set off again, Bob slipped in mud and Bobby yelled, "Dad fell!". I turned around and saw his feet pointed upward, his head out of sight, but obviously he was hanging upside down, on his back, off the cliff, and he was clutching brush. Thank God for the brush. Those of you who have hiked this trail know what I mean!

We had to cross the "stream" (which rushes across lava rocks just before it dumps into the ocean) to get to the beach. On the way over, it was about thigh high on me, so I put Ally on my back and made my way across. Bobby and Bob crossed holding hands. After hiking to the pointy cliff and back, the water from all the rain had risen to about waist-high on me. I was holding onto Ally for dear life (hers) and was losing her. A couple of big guys on the shore rushed in and grabbed her from me and I made my way over. The look on Bobby's eyes were something I won't soon forget.

All ended well, but I kept playing it all over and over in my head and had a hard time falling asleep last night. The kids had a blast, and Bob and I did, too, so I'll just focus on that and the fact that everybody is still here! Check out the mud - the kids painted warrior stripes on their faces.

After the hike, we swam in the beach at the trailhead to rinse off. There were more tropical fish to watch, so I was of course the bad guy when I dragged them out of the water. We are staying on the south side of the island (Poipu), so we had about an hours drive in wet clothes. We were soaked and starving, but the absolute splendor of that hike is so worth it.
There were fireworks at the Marriott to ring in the new year, but we were all asleep at 8:00. At least we saw New York ring in the new year... ;-)

Kaua'i update

Hello from Kaua'i. Here's a pic of the giant koi that live in the pond in the hotel's courtyard. One of them is 226 years old. Later today we will send out our Happy New Year! from the Na'Pali Coast.

The kids are getting up to get ready for the most beautiful hike in the world. Bob and I hiked the centuries-old trail when we were last here in '96. It's whale season, so hopefully we will see one while we are up there.

Below is Bob with Ally - After a couple hours at the beach watching tropical fish swim beneath them, we got then into dry clothes and went to watch the spouting horn "geisers" for a while. I had forgotten how noisy they were.

Have a great day everybody. Thanks for being a part of my 2007. You all enrich my life and I am grateful you are all a part of it!

xoxoxo

Jenny

Family vacation

So there was about a foot of fresh snow in Minneapolis when we left. But we're in sunny Kaua'i right now, and it's beautiful! Yesterday the kids ran down to the beach jsut as we arrived - below they are actually putting their feet into an ocean for the first time.


Here the kids are on the beach at sunset near Waimea. Bobby and I ran down this beach for about 30 minutes. Bob and Ally drove the car down and picked us up. Bobby never tires... my little endurance athlete. Who know that the age of nine would mark the time that he can run farther and faster than I.


The temperature calls for more lows of 70, highs of 80 degrees... I went running for about 75 minutes this morning and found a cute church called Kaua'i Christian Fellowship, so I ran in, borrowed a cell phone, and called Bob to bring the kids down. It was a nice service - very casual (which I like). The lead singer in the band didn't even have shoes on, and the pastor wore jeans. But the message was true and beautiful in its sincerity.

We have spotty connection here in our room, but I will try to get some more pics loaded later.

Happy New Year everybody.

Well, we are off to explore the island.....

We did... and here's proof!

It was -4 degrees when I got up, and Laura and I had to do an 18-miler today. So we agreed to help each other tough out a dreadmill run - and we did it~! This is the furthest either of us has ever run on a machine, so we are really proud of ourselves!

Thank you to IronGreg, Rachel, and IronNick for talking us through the tough moments. Woo-hoo!

Confession time...

First I have to confess that isn't really me in my last post. If you thought it was Shame on you!!


Well, it's my head, OK? My girlfriend Holly is a whiz with Photoshop and when she has a spare moment and needs to amuse herself, she does things like this. She's the one who travels to marathons with plastic fake poop and leaves it on the floor in bathrooms and stuff. I love having her around and I am so glad she's my friend because I think it's just hilarious when these pictures come over unexpectedly. I just can't stop laughing!


It all started about three years ago when somebody sent me a picture of a really fat lady and I forwarded it on to Holly with a note that said, "this is why we run". She sent it back with a reply, "yeah"... only now the picture had my head on it. I laughed so long and hard that I ended up using this picture as my profile picture for the Tri Club. It still makes me laugh. You can actually see her belly button sticking out from under her dress. C'mon - it's funny - admit it!!!



Below is IronGirlNyhus also having a fat day, and killing time at the casino after the Deadwood Marathon:



...yet she's also been spotted having days when she just needs a decent meal:



... and this is our Gear West Triathlon coach, Kris:



Remember when I went to Brazil to do Ironman with TriNick? Well, Holly caught him sporting a swimsuit we've never seen him wear back home. Busted!!!




So who is this Holly? Well, here she is below (in black arm warmers and hat), racing in the NYC marathon with our friends Deb, Rom, and Cathy-Mac.




Ahhh... anyway, I love when these little pick-me-ups arrive in my inbox.


My other confession is this:
I know I told a few of you that I was "done with Ironman". I felt ready for the "next adventure", I'd already done it five times, and it's so expensive and with business so slow it's just not a priority, (three completely valid reasons) but when push came to shove and the deadline approached for submitting my slip entry for Ironman Florida 08........ I buckled. I went ahead and registered. I couldn't help it. I love this sport and want to keep it in my life. It's who I am and it's what I do. I LIKE having an Ironman on my calendar. I like hanging out with true-blue fantastic people, meeting more truly fantastic people, and having a decent reason to watch tv (on my trainer). Watching tv by itself makes me feel like I'm doing something I shouldn't be.

So. I'm in.

My girlfriend Erin will be doing her first Ironman in Florida, raising money for Team Ortho, and I want to be there. She hasn't even done her first triathlon yet, but that's okay. She ordered a bike and it should be here in about a week. She said she remembers how to ride one because she had one as a kid. [Gosh, don't you just have to love that spirit??] I'll try to get her to blog because you all will just love her. Those of you doing/ spectating Phoenix Rock and Roll will get to meet her, as she is rooming with me, IronGirlNyhus, and Greg.

Have a good night everyone.

IRONJenny ;-)

Funny!

This is just part of a funny blog post that one of my Gear West teammates just sent me. He's describing Cycling in the Fall Season. This is his take on triathletes:

For the full hilarious blog post, go here.

The Triathlete
At this point in the year The Triathlete has transitioned from short-shorts and half-shirt to full-length tights and loose-fitting long-sleeved runner's jersey (which is an outfit that is a helmet away from a pair of pajamas). However, he (or she, of course) has not yet transitioned from the 53x14 gear, nor from the "tuck" of questionable aerodynamic benefit that is less Pro Tour time trialist than it is pedantic professor resting his elbows on a lectern. Not even the vibrant colors of autumn are enough to distract The Triathlete from his or her mission of beating leisure cyclists over modest inclines, striving to improve on "personal bests," and abstaining from all aspects of cycling except for the going forward with your head down part.

Hahahaha!!!!

So now that I am in the off season, I think I'll get some sun in the tropics.

okay... so my friend Holly has too much time on her hands again. She titled this one How Not To Wear A Thong...

Aye. Que Cosa???

I am thankful 4 u!

This morning I got up to run the Drumstick Dash with my good friend Diane. We made a new friend Norbert along the way. It was a beautiful run - fluffy snowflakes falling on our 10K....
Then home to make sweet potatoes, sauteed spinach, spiral ham and a chocolatey dessert. No traditional Thanksgiving fixin's this year.

Below is Bobby - yesterday they were off from school so he and I went exploring in the woods. We found a stream and a foxhole and a lot of kindling for the firepit.

Have a wonderful day, everyone. I am truly thankful for all of you!

xoxoxo,
Jenny

Before/ After

Before

After

Since we've lived in this house for two years now I decided to decorate my room. The paint is Benjamin Moore's "Meditation" from the Affinity Line; the bedding, lamps, pillows, drapes and candle are Target.

Ironman Florida

We arrived at the airport with sufficient time for TriNick to visit "the bathroom"... you know... the one made famous by the horny still-in-closet senator. Nick promises he did NOT tap his foot or reach under the door, as this security guard will attest.

After we arrived, we headed down to the beach for a warmup swim with some of our Minnesota buddies: Nick, me, John, Leanne, and IronGirlNyhus. I got stung three times by jellyfish.

Here is the group picture of the MN Ironmen.

We made a bunch of signs for our friends... that's Betty, Laura's mom on the left.

And Laura made one for the legendary Frank Ferrar. Do you realize he raised over $200,000 in charity for this one race? He is an amazing man.

... that night we found a few bloggers (surprisingly!) in the hotel bar... MicheleK, Lana, Trimama, me, and Mrs. Bigun.

Here I am on the bike course... IronGreg drove by ringing the cowbell. Can't ever have too much of that... I did have some trouble on the bike between mile 49 and 63 when my heart started pounding out of my chest. I could not get it below 230 beats, so I sat upright and coasted at about 15 - 17 mph for about 45 minutes. I threw up when I tried to get back into my aerobars. I was getting freaked out because I was in the middle of nowhere, so when I got to the aid station at mile 63 I got off my bike, went to the bathroom, ate, put some more sunscreen on and stood next to my bike until my HR was down to 139. Then I got back on and was fine the rest of the day. Hence my negative split if you were following irnmanlive.com.

... and dancing on the run course - halfway there! My heartrate average was only 132 on the run - I never even SAW 140 beats. So I was low on the run and high on the bike. Weird.

... and at the finish with IronGirl Nyhus. Laura decided not to race, so she took pictures and supported/ cheered all day. Thanks Laura! I love you!

So my stats were:

Conditions: no wind on the bike; nice breeze on the run. Low temp maybe 55; high temp maybe 75degrees. Ocean? not even a ripple. Smooth as glass. I did see two jellyfish on the swim, but did not get stung.

swim

2.4 miles - 1:08:15 (pace 1:49/100 meters)

bike

73 miles - 3:53:14 (pace 18.78 mph)

39 miles - 2:00:36 (pace 19.4 mph)

112 miles - 5:53:50 (pace 18.99 mph)

run

13.1 miles - 2:27:02 (pace 11:13/mile)

13.1 miles - 2:35:54 (pace 11.54/mile)

26.2 miles - 5:02:00 (pace 11.34/mile)

TOTAL

12:12:13

Here we are at post-race registration for 2008 with Lana, MicheleK, Taconite Boy, and Trimama - who is on the phone with Kahuna, who said he'd do it with us.

The day after is always a relaxing one with chillin' and swillin'. Here are Bigun and Tac Boy getting out of the water after about an hour swim. Di and I watched them for a while, but they swam too far down the beach and our Bloody Mary was getting hot, so we gave up.

Me, Di, and Bigun poolside. Have I told you how delightful and funny these people are? I would go anywhere to a race with them.

Blogger girls: Trimama, IronGirl Nyhus, TriFeist, Mrs. Bigun, me and TriandBeHappy.

This is Di, Trimama, Bigun, me and Taconight Boy after the awards ceremony, posing with my 1st place Athena trophy. Even though I was 24 minutes slower this year, I defended my title!

Last day - meeting at Java Joey's to share pictures and say goodbye.

... and a good time was had by all...

The End!