Thursday, September 23, 2010

IMWI 2010 Race Report - The Final Gasp

After the finish all I wanted was a Coke. The volunteers helped me find one. Then I just wanted to sit down. They got me over to the athlete's food tent and I found a prime spot.


I look extremely thin (for me anyway.) It took me about four days post race to get back to my pre-race weigh-in weight. (If you look very closely at my arm you can still see my "612" number from Honu burned into my skin over four months ago.)

My wife handed me the phone and told me to call my coach. Apparently she had some words to say to me.



She was extremely pleased with me. (She later awarded me the "Badass Award" for my performance.)

Hey, look I can still walk. I'm waiting to see how CS & MS are finishing. The finish line is to my left. Obviously, I'm still a little disoriented.



MS came through first. I caught up with her in the "food corral."


CS came in shortly after. I caught up with her right after the finish line.








Here are the three of us. The one thing we were all so happy about is that we ALL had a great race. We could all feel happy for ourselves and for each other. And we all trained and succeeded in our separate ways. It was an unbelievable feeling!



Eventually we all caught up with our family and friends. MS had some more training partners to cheer on and CS had to catch up with her kids. I had one thing on my mind.



And this:



I haven't had a drink in over three years (I had a little wine in Italy, so I guess that isn't an entirely true statement) but I wanted a beer. A big, cold beer.

I enjoyed it! A. LOT.



And then, my real motivation.


That's a bone in Porterhouse, folks. (Porterhouse = New York Strip and filet mignon.) And the hashbrowns were the perfect compliment.

Look at the concentration on my face. I'm in "the ZONE."



I finished the whole thing!



I really wanted to come back to cheer the last finishers at midnight, but when I got back to the hotel to drop of A and my mom my meat coma had set in and all I wanted to do was go to bed. So, I did.

The next morning we got packed up to leave. MS and I took the opportunity to turn the "Yes, we are MEAN" sign around.



When I got home my in-laws and sister came over for dinner. And I got cake.



Thanks for taking the journey with me. You can now return to your lives, families and jobs. (Now that I'm done with my race report I'm going to have to figure out what to do with all this free time. Maybe I'll start training again.)

9 comments:

Dwayne said...

Congrats on the great race! Reading these IM race reports really makes me want to do this--someday. Considering I can't swim more than 50 meters at a time, haven't ever seriously biked, and haven't run anything over a half marathon, I've got my work cut out for me. I am inspired nonetheless!

NJ said...

Thank goodness...I can finally get on with it! ;-)

Congrats, Ironman! Bask in the glory of having such an amazing race...you deserve it!

IAN said...

Me want steak and cake

Court said...

Awesome race reports... the first picture in this post is my favorite. Your expression says it all. I'm so happy for you! You really kicked ass on this grueling ordeal!

Maggs said...

Dude. I did not have to look closely to see the 612 on your arm. I saw it and laughed, then read your comment on it. I think you need to find somewhere very sunny and put sunscreen all over except there. Get that area burned so you'll even out. I'm not sure it will go away on it's own otherwise.

mary said...

Let's do it again!!!!

Lisa T said...

Finally I know what a porterhouse is!

zbsports said...

The race seems so interesting and challenging. The event is tough and looks everyone is happy to it. Good post too.

D said...

Why I'm just catching up on this, I don't know. BUT ... did you eat your dinner with your medal on? Have I taught you nothing?

And are you getting an Argon?!?!