Post Race

Shellie and I were posing for a finish picture right when my family came up. Thank goodness they did because they got the pic below. In the professional one, my eyes are closed! Chad, Randy, Laurie, Josh, and Robin were all in the finishers area and it was great to see all of them. I talked to my family for a little while as well and they were just fabulous. Doug and Linda were beyond impressed and excited to go back to their small home town and tell people about what I had done over the weekend.

Greg got a picture of Team Wand it is a great pic. I'm glad we were able to get one of all of us together. They had just been so wonderful the entire weekend and I was so happy and blessed to have them there. After a while they headed off to the brewery they had found at lunch. Apparently the beer was so good they had to go back for more at dinner!

Randy, Josh, and I went in search of food and sat down to some good pizza. Randy was amazed I could eat so soon as he was just eating after finishing hours earlier. I said rarely do I have any problem eating! We came back to the finish line just in time to see Michelle finish and she had the hugest smile on her face. She had PR'd as well and I was so glad to see her happy. We got a few pictures together and then we got a great group picture.

I got back to the hotel and had a tough time falling asleep. I checked on everyone else on my laptop and was awake until after 2. My poor sister had to get up at 5:15 to fly back to San Antonio, so there wasn't a lot of sleep to be had in my room that night. I woke up when she did and didn't go back to sleep. A group of us met for breakfast bright and early and then Mom and Dad took me back to the race site so I could rummage through the special needs bags in hopes of getting my stuff back. Thankfully I found both of them and got what I needed. After that we were off to the airport where once again half of our plane was filled with Houston people who did the Ironman.

Looking back, this experience was completely different than last year's. There is certainly a lot to be said about doing your first ironman. I had a hard time while doing number two on the same course. I wasn't excited and could not find much motivation. I kept telling myself that I had told everyone in our group how great Ironman was and that it would truly be the time of your life. Yet I wasn't having the time of mine. Once I found Shellie my race turned around and I did have a ball, but I don't know what my thoughts would be had I not found her. I think racing two years in a row on the same course is tough. I also know the heat and winds had to have something to do with my seemingly endless frustration with the race.

The training this year, however, was beyond rewarding. Having a group made all the difference in the world. I truly felt like we arrived in Arizona as a team. I was thinking through most of the race that I would have to think long and hard about doing another Ironman. I felt pretty jaded about all of it. I felt like I wasn't getting back nearly as much as I had put in. Of course as time passes your mind can change on things like that. There is some noise about doing Florida in 2009 and I may consider that. The good thing is I have until November of 2008 to decide about that one.

Life has been very crazy since the race and I'm hoping for some normalcy very soon!! I am doing a sprint race in Dallas this weekend, CB&I Triathlon in the Woodlands next weekend, and then a half ironman in Panama City, Fl the next weekend. That half Ironman may be very interesting seeing as it is 10 days post race and I have one whole walk around the block to my name under the exercise column since the race. Oh well. Life gets in the way of life sometimes.