Ironman Texas 2011, part one

Last weekend at this time, Landon and I were just getting home from Conroe, hanging out with is brother and sister in law and reveling in the fact that Ironman Texas was over and that it had gone so well.  In some ways last week, as we were packing up to head out to the Woodlands, seems so long ago!

Last Wednesday night, we pulled out the packing lists and all of the triathlon gear and got everything ready to go, since we were both take a half day on Thursday and taking Friday off because this year for some reason his race was on Saturday.  It's amazing how much stuff we had in our truck for just three days, between clothes, triathlon gear and food for the weekend!  Luckily though it all fit in the truck and as soon as my sub showed up I headed downtown to pick Landon up and we hit the road.  It was very different this year just having to drive an hour to get to the Woodlands, as opposed to packing up and flying to Coeur d'Alene last year. 

When we got in town, we headed straight to check in an check out the Expo--only to be greeted by a CRAZY long line to check in.  But, we took turns waiting in line and walking around the rest of the Expo, and we met some cool people in line who we discovered actually live right by us, so it went by a lot faster than I thought it would.

Once we made it to the front of the line, Landon checked in and got all of his cool goodies and then we headed out to see different parts of the course and transition areas before dinner.

We checked out the swim to bike transition, where we were going to have to drop off his bike on Friday.

He was number 873! :)

His dad joined us for the evening and walked around with us, looking at the course.

Then, we checked out the swim and saw the canal where we were hoping to spot Landon during the swim portion of the race.

This sign made me laugh. :)

Then, we headed back to the hotel where they were holding the athlete dinner.  We both thought there was no way we'd be hungry for dinner at 530pm, but when the time came we were both starving!  And, much to our surprise, the food was delicious.  Not quite worth how much we had to pay for my ticket (L got in free since he was competing), but much better than the spaghetti dinner we had at Coeur d'Alene.  We sat with the TriPsyclones, a triathlon group we belong to that Landon has done a tad bit of his training with, and our new friends that we met in line. 

After our yummy meal, Mike Reilly, the "voice of Ironman" started the program.  It's been fun because the two races that Landon has done, he's been the one announcing for both of them.  He announces at Kona every year and then at a few others throughout the year and he's one of the founders of Active.com.  So, it has been cool to see him up close and hear him say Landon's name as he comes across the finish line. 

This year, at Ironman Texas, they were all full of the cowboy jokes. :)

And, we knew Chris Lieto, one of the pros that we really like because of his work with World Vision and other charities (plus, he's just really freaky good and super fast on the bike, so he's fun to watch!) was going to be racing.  But, we didn't know he was the new Ironman spokesperson or that he was going to be speaking at the event.  So, it was pretty cool to have a front row seat to hear him speak about his new charity and the work he's doing to raise money at all of his races.  And, as we were listening to him speak, we discovered that he has a stutter, which makes me almost respect him even more for taking on the role of spokesperson and starting the charity and not letting something like that stop him from doing good.

We heard lots of inspirational stories, heard from a bunch of people who helped put on the race and got all of the final instructions and rules.  I could definitely tell I was pregnant because about 10 times during the program I had to fight back the tears, ha!

After the program was over, we took advantage of some of the cool "Ironman" walls and took a few pictures. 

Here is Landon with all the TriPsyclones that were competing.

And, he got to meet Mike Reilly--pretty cool. 

And, since my camera died before we got a picture in front of the Ironman CDA wall last June,we decided to remedy that for this race.  Oh how things can change in just one year.

Landon and his dad

After the dinner was over, we said our goodbyes and then headed back to the lake house we had for the weekend to unpack and begin getting everything ready.  Because we only had 2 nights there before the race, instead of three like last year, everything felt a little more rushed.  So, we decided to lay everything out that night and got most of his bags ready to go for race day, since we had to bring some of them on Friday and leave them at transition.  Then, as soon as that was done, we hit the sack, because they tell you to get a good nights sleep the night before the night before a race.  And, we couldn't sleep in on Friday because Landon wanted to get a little swim and bike in and they only had the swim course open for a few hours in the morning.

At this point, Ironman hadn't announced if the course would be wetsuit legal or not, because the water temperature was very borderline, so Landon swam a lap with his wetsuit and a lap without, just to test it out.

He said it wasn't cold without it, but I always feel so much better when he has a wetsuit on, because it is ROUGH out there for the swim and it just adds an extra layer of protection.

After his swim, he jumped on his bike and rode it over to T1 to get everything set up for race day.  His dad and I jumped in our cars and met him over there with all of the rest of his gear.

My handsome husband--I was so proud of all the work he'd done up until this point--it was hard to believe that the race was finally here!

family photo :)

Then, before we headed to grab a quick lunch at the Olive Garden and back to the house to rest for the remainder of the day, we dropped off his bike and run bags with everything he'd need for the race the next day.  It was all starting to become very real at this point!  And, I was just praying that the weather would cool off some overnight because, as we were walking around doing all of this, it was HOT.

After lunch,  Landon's dad went to meet some people he was giving massages to before the race and L and I headed back to Conroe to do what we always do the afternoon before a big race--absolutely nothing!  Well, at least nothing that involves being on your feet and not resting. :)  He took a little nap and I did some grading for school and a few other things I'd been needing to get caught up on and then we just hung out and talked and watched TV for a few hours.  All afternoon the wind was blowing and it got pretty dark, but no rain ever came through to cool things off unfortunately.

Then, that evening his mom drove up and his parents went out to dinner.  We stayed in and had a quiet evening at the house.  We cooked some garlic chicken pasta, brocoli and fresh bread (which, for the first time ever, I didn't burn the bottom of!) for dinner, got his food ready for the next day, checked and double checked that we had everything he would need for the race and then hit the sack around 930pm, since we had a 4am wake up call coming!

The night before Ironman CDA I was a little antsy and maybe a little nervous for Landon, but I don't remember being overly anxious.  This year for some reason, I had butterflies in my stomach all night and especially as I was going to sleep.  I think I was nervous about the weather, that it would be super hot and windy or rainy during the course, about the swim and him not wearing a wetsuit, about him being stressed about things, about something going wrong and me having to raise this baby by myself, ha!  I don't know; I was just anxious.  So, as he lay in bed listening to Brisingr on his Ipod and trying to fall asleep, I pulled out my Bible and read in Psalms.  I can't even remember which Psalm I was reading, but I just kept reading it over and over again, trying to soak in the words and be reminded of God's goodness and faithfulness.  And, as I woke up to a big thunderstorm in the middle of the night, I just thanked God that the rain was coming through in the middle of the night and not on race morning and prayed that it would bring (even slightly!) cooler temperatures.  And then, before we knew it, it was 4am, both of our alarms were going off and we were both springing out of bed, ready to go--and wishing each other a happy anniversary! :)