I made it, and I did a little jig to celebrate! Captain Cartwheel and I rode the bike course this weekend, and I am going to say we may have even had fun doing it. Mr. Fury was our driver and sag wagon for the weekend which was much appreciated.
Our driver drove us out to Fireman's Park in/near Verona to start the double loop on Saturday morning. It took a little while for me to get situated because I was trying out a friend's Zipp wheels and Power Tap. It's borderline hilarious when you see them on my tiny 49cm bike frame and the front wheel says: Zipp 404 Clydesdale. HA! Tiny little me on a clydesdale Zipp wheel. Oh, it still makes me chuckle. Needless to say, my friend has a little larger body frame than me. After we got our bikes and bodies loaded down with fluids and food for the ride, we were off.
We spent the whole first loop just figuring out the course, where we needed to turn, the terrain, and just trying to enjoy the sights of the countryside. What really struck me was how beautiful the scenery is along the course. Wow! If you're doing IMWI, stop to enjoy the countryside because it's not all cornfields and cows. Although, when you are by a cow pasture, there is incentive to peddle faster to get away from the smell...
The Captain and I have heard nightmare stories about the hills on this course. We kept waiting to see Tour de France-like 3 mile grinders, but they never came. Granted, this course wasn't easy as pie, but it was not what we expected based on what we have heard. It was tough, but do-able. There were about four hard hills throughout the loop and the rest were "rolling" hills or gentle-ish inclines.
About a 1/4 of the way through the first loop, I was going down a hill and trying to gain speed but it never came. I couldn't help but think, "Geez, these wheels are crap! Talk about false advertising!" When I was climbing up the next hill, I thought I either have a flat or the tire is rubbing on my frame. As it turned out, the latter was true and I am now the proud owner of major skid marks. Not that kind of skid mark, sheesh! Get your head out of the gutter! My poor frame has black marks all over my silver paint job. Insert big frowny face here. Our sag wagon extraordinaire came to the rescue and we just switched out my wheels, and all was right in world. Ahhhh.
We met up with Mr. Fury again at the two Kwik stops along the course to re-fuel and check-in, and before we knew it, we were done with our first loop. It really did not seem so bad. I was surprised. Captain Cartwheel and I decided another loop was in order, and that is exactly what we did. The hills seemed a little bit harder, the quads started to scream a little bit, but all-in-all I was impressed with how well we did. We met up with Mr. Fury at the second Kwik Trip on the course and told him we were going to finish the loop and head back to Madison.
There is one more tough hill on the way back to Madison, and when we got to it, we were neither expecting it nor did we know that it was the last hill. From a prior race, spectators spray painted on the hill, "Last Hill!" and all I could think was, "If they're lying, someone will pay for this!". Who they are and the someone that would pay is still a mystery to me, but that is the level of rationale when you are riding up what seemed like the 100th hill of the day. The last thing you want to hear is that you are on the last hill and then come to find out that it indeed was not. About 1/2 way up this last hill they also spray painted, "Now Run!". Thanks for the reminder...
Captain Cartwheel and I hit John Nolen Dr. and just about celebrated. We saw the lake, the Capitol and the Terrace. It was like the clouds parted on downtown Madison and I could hear the angels singing the Hallelujah chorus, or maybe that was fatigue I heard ringing in my ears. We were getting closer to the Mecca better known as Monona Terrace, and I did a little jig when we got to the base of the parking ramp. It was then that Captain Cartwheel ruined my high and said, "And if this were the race, we would have to ride up the 3 levels of that helix to transition." Ugh. Thanks for the reminder...again.
Even though my high was crushed, I still felt pretty good about the day. We rode a total of 100 miles in about 6:30 + stops. We finally got back to the hotel, showered up and shuffled to the local Irish Pub across from the Capitol. It was delicious and the first real meal of the day. Turns out it was a cheap trip for us. We ate GUs, bananas, Accelerade, Luna Moons and potatoes all day on our ride and only had to buy dinner. The next day we had to get our long run in which consisted of about the same diet, stopped for lunch, and then we were on our way back home.
It was weird when we left Madison knowing we would be back in a little over a month's time. The feeling I was left with is hard to describe which is another reason why this Ironman journey has been so difficult. I have had nine months of training for the biggest event of my life and I have found so few words to describe it. It is hard to shut me up sometimes so you can imagine my frustration. Maybe when this journey has culminated I will have more words, but maybe I won't. My best guess at this point is that you will just have to try an IM on for size to fully understand.
Happy Trails!
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