The last few days before we headed to Canada were hectic…just like all the other days of our life recently! We had originally planned to leave on Wednesday morning, but decided to leave on Thursday instead. Few reasons for this…I wanted to give my arm as much time to heal and as many dr appts as I could. Also, I HATE being away from the pets. And knowing how stressed out I get before an event, I figured that extra days there would not be enjoyable for me (or anyone else!).
It’s a good thing we gave ourselves that extra day, we barely got things done in time to even get on the road Thursday! The amount of stuff needed for a triathlon is seriously unbelievable. It takes a lot of planning and packing to make sure you have all the things you need. We actually brought a full length folding table into the front room. Trevor laid out his things there and I used the pool table.
I had been doing some running and spin class, but hadn’t tested my arm on the swim. Tuesday night I did that. It didn’t feel great, but it felt good enough. I had a hell of a time getting my wetsuit on with one good arm (and that good arm has a thumb that doesn’t work!). While putting on my suit, I tore a hole in it, that needed to be patched. Ugh.
We were having our outfits for the day logo’d with Max Muscle and We live for Crazy. The printer was having some issues and finally got them delivered to us on Tuesday night. I saw them and just about started to cry. They looked like shit. The print was all gloppy, my shirt was all stretched out and couldn’t be worn, Trevor’s white top was all yellowed from going through their heater. I could not believe it.
I had gone through so much to get my shirt ready to go. I had been wearing the same purple shirt for every triathlon in the last two years. I decided I wanted a new one for Ironman. I searched high and low online and in stores to find the right one. I finally found one that I liked and ordered it online in a medium. I got it and realized I needed a small. I ordered that and got it just in time for one test bike ride. That was the day I crashed my bike..my shirt tore down the front. The printer was supposed to pick it up the next day. I called the place I ordered it from and they said they would overnight me a new one. Then they called back to say that they didn’t have it in stock so they would have the manufacturer send it to me. I gave the printer my torn shirt to do their measurements on. They did a test printing on that shirt and when they put it into the dryer, it “melted like plastic”. They tried a different print technique on the new shirt, but stretched the shirt.
I finally realized that the purple shirt was to blame….it was pissed that it wasn’t getting to do Ironman. It had done all the work, all the shorter races, training swims and rides and now it wasn’t going to get the glory. I decided to wear the purple shirt on race day. I pulled it out of the practice swim gear pile and put it in the race day pile. All was right with the world now.
We did our last spin class on Wednesday morning and when it was over Trevor said “that’s it. Ready?”. A tough question. How can that be it? How can it be time? The training seemed to go on forever, yet it was over in the blink of an eye. As tough as it has been, in so many ways, it has been one of the most fun times in my life. I have thoroughly enjoyed all this time on the swim, bike and run with Trevor and with Doug. And now it was coming to an end, that made me a little sad.
Thursday morning I had one last appt with Dr. Jake. He commented that arm looked even better than it had two days earlier. He worked on it and taped it up. I asked him for any last words of advice and he said “have fun”.
I headed home, where Trevor was finishing up the packing and the cleaning. I said good bye to the pets and hit the road….
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