Week Recap (I.E. Put-in-Bay rocks)

Well my week of training was somewhat of a bust as I spent a lot of time preparing to go to PIB this past weekend. I did get in an awesome mountain bike ride at West Branch with N8 and a couple of halfway decent runs and spin classes but that was about it. I am not overly concerned by this as I think I have a solid enough base for both endurance and aerobic capacity to carry me through Columbus, plus I am working extra hard these next two weeks and will only taper one week versus my normal two as I head into the race. Still feeling very confident that this will be the one and I will get the Boston monkey off my back...I hope the weather cooperates.

On to the fun stuff. This past Friday Sue and I and four of our friends piled into our motor home for a wild weekend of halfway to St. Patty's day partying at PIB. This was a first for Sue and I and we were looking forward to experiencing Key West of the North.

Starting out the trip was wild. For anyone who has ever rode the ferry to PIB take my word for it taking a 34ft motor home on it is not nearly as fun as you might think. Good thing there was plenty of partying to follow to relieve the stress of that part of the weekend. Here are a few of the highlights that made this the best trip all summer:

1. Friday night cab ride into town and start with perch sandwich at Mossbacks...Yummy
2. Mustang Sally at beer barrel...things are starting to get going
3. Bob Gatewood at The Roundhouse....things are starting to hurt
4. 1am cab ride back to motor home....walk from cab drop off to motor home via light from a blackberry...very useful tool
5. Saturday Am bike ride around the island in the misty rain
6. 11:30am stop at Frosty's for some cold beer...stayed to watch OSU game....things starting to heat up again
7. Frosty's pizza to soak up some of the beer was awesome
8. After OSU win shaky bike ride (hey it was after a football game!!) back to campground for margaritas and showers
9. the shower....don't ask
10. cab ride back to town around 6pm with stop somewhere that had a patio...sucked us in with a couple of good tunes and once we were settled in they changed it up to shitty music
11. went back to the beer barrel, after finding out that the roundhouse was charging 5 bucks a person, to watch mustang sally again
12. Mustang Sally lead singer sounds and acts like Reba McIntyre(sp) and continually says y'all and references her need to find a man..this is tolerable for about a half hour and we decide to head to roundhouse anyways
13. five dollar cover has been lifted and Bob Gatewood is rocking....lots of drinking, laughing and dancing
14. pizza following to much fun at roundhouse was awesome...great idea Susie!!!
15. Cab ride home with Dusty was interesting to say the least (I think)
16. painful wake up and trip home Sunday morning

Memorable moments - some of which only the six of us will understand:

1. ferry trip - both directions
2. I have no gag reflex
3. P farts in the cab
4. versatility of the blackberry
5. J's bucket head
6. S's new friends
7. D's new friends
8. p needs to take his pants off
9. T enjoying himself by the fire
10. J needs an extra bucket for her students to wash the blackboard

Great friends, Great weekend now time to focus on Columbus Marathon

That's all for now

cutting the ties to Ironman Wisconsin 2008

Well I think today is the day that I close the book on IM Wisconsin. The official end of any of my big races is the day I cut off my wristband and start to think about whats next. This will be more emotional than you might think for me because I really don't want to say goodbye yet. I had such a great time training for and racing this race. Although it was in the top three of hardest races/events I have participated in, it really feels like it is the hardest to say goodbye to.

However, all good things must come to an end so I am cutting the wristband off and I am starting to think about my next two races. The first is the Columbus Marathon where I am going to take a run at qualifying for Boston. I have already raced two marathons this year and missed by 1 minute in the first and 7 minutes in the second but I feel really good about this one. This could be the one!!! The second big race I have coming up is the Ragnar Relay in Feb. 2009 in Arizona. I am really excited about this one as I will be joining some old friends who I have not seen for about 10 years. It should be a blast.

Moving forward I will be recapping my weekly training and giving updates on any new adventures that may come my way.

That's all for now