Friends...It's a good thing

It's amazing how the experience of Ironman has created so many new relationships in this superhero's life. What a blessing. Leaving WIBA this weekend left Tac with the realization that he's not only looking forward to getting this race on, but also to seeing so many good friends complete one of the great physical feats of their lives.

Kinda like when Tri Sara Tops did this..



Just blew the digital dust off some old files in IPhoto and found this little movie! That's what makes this community so unique. Experiencing such awesome achievements with many people we've never met before. Hi Sara Tops, I'm Trimama and your an Ironman! That's cool.

The weekend that was Wisconsin Ironman Brick Adventure 2007.


Friday

Tac and his trusty Sidekick Tri Turbo Kraut arrived late Friday afternoon into Madison. Yep..sure enough, as soon as I saw Lake Monona the nerves kicked in. Chatted a bit with Wil at the Cycle Ops clinic and met up with an old Iron Volunteer friend Walchka, met a new friend in Ryan and then headed over to the Sheraton to settle in.

TTK decided to lay low while your resident caped wonder headed of to Monona to get smoked in a late afternoon swim with Simply Stu. Dang he's fast, or he's got some sort of Hd TV tucked in that 2XU suit somewhere. Nice swim, but could have used nose plugs due to the 10 million pounds of chum that seemed to be deposited right in front of Monona Terrace :( ewww. Regardless when your with Stu your feelin the love.

Finished the night at a fine Italian establishment, that was overwhelmed by the numbers we had. They were planning on 20 and ended up with about 60. Met up with Walchka again, also got to meet Luke from the Twin Cities and caught up with Rural girl, Bolder and met Coach Ricci. Good old Tri love was had by all.



As usual TTK is in the lower right corner taking a call from chief...discussing our next mission...sadly, even a superhero sidekick's life does not allow for too much personal time...




Saturday

Tac slept poorly, followed by that sinking feeling that today was going to be tough. It's hard to explain, fear or maybe stress from the week, or just the idea of going this distance was really playing head games. Lots of tossing and turning. We headed over to the swim start at 6:30 where TTK jumped in and tac held off, figuring the ride/run off would be enough for me today...it was.

Clipped in by the north Helix of Monona Terrace at 9:00. The temperature was already climbing into the mid 80's. God bless Stu, but he did say in his course preview video that the road out to Verona was fairly flat...Stu is a liar. Tac of course means that in a loving, friend sorta way, but he is lying. The course IS NEVER FLAT. ANYHOW, we took the ROLLING hills out to Verona and began the first loop. I new we were in for a treat when the first right turn onto the double 40 mile loop went straight up. Then Down. Then Up. Then Down. Then rolling. Then Up. Then dow.....you get the point. Wisconsin is a rolling course, which never allows you to get into a good clean rhythm. Your constantly changing gears and shifting in order to get ready for the next set of undulating road.

The lack of rhythm is the one big key that Tac takes from this weekend's ride. That will be constantly in the back of his mind. Training on these types of courses will be the goal from here on out.

There was talk (quite foolishly) that we would go the full 112 even though no plan's at the table called for that kind of ride. Yet when TTK's on board temp gauge read 104 from road surface heat, we decided that this was sucking and we needed to head back. Finished the course with one loop and came in around 74 miles. Ran off for about 40 minutes around Monona and looked a little like this by the end....



The TacPlane is taking off in about 25 minutes for denver and the tribe, so more later...having good camaraderie was important after that ride.