Monday, August 15, 2011

Too bad i didnt see Phil and Bobke too

So this past weekend i hit the Dairyland Dare. Figured why not, get some more hills, drive back to Madison area AGAIN...and sleep in a bad hotel bed. Why not? Our hotel did have one thing that was good. Location, Location, Location. .7 miles from Lands End and the start of the Wisconsin Gran Fondo.

Of course i wasnt Fondo-ing, so the timing chip was sorta silly, but it was still fun to go "BEEEEEEP" over all the timing mats.

Highlights: Waking up at 4 am .  ha kidding. that goes into the lowlights.
Ok lets start over:
Closing my eyes at 5:30 am in the parking lot of Lands End ( start of the event) and realizing that little dude with the brown hair who was lifting up my bike and giving it some love was none other than:
Robbie! Too funny, had i known it was him i would have had a sweet remark about not having a team car when he said all the bottles made the bike SO HEAVY!

Riding with my honey and Scott, not quite the Triple Bypass but still pretty darn fun.

No flats, for me. Scott had one.

Eating the best chex mix and 1/2 banana mid ride, i know i know, that isnt my IM nutrition but it was better than a slim jim. I was fine. Yay I can do that during IM and not puke.

The volunteers! Can you say WOW. They were at MOST corners flagging you to turn.

Riding with Ben!

Running with Ben!

Never Bonking

Eating good food after. I dont know if it was good, but it was food.

Beer. Yup. I had a great Belgian, then ran into some Dartmouth 99's who gave me their beer coupons. This made Rich And Scott very happy. ( remember the location location location of the hotel? close by)
And yes it never hurts to be a Dartmouth Alum.

All the people telling me i had a nice rack. Yup, i havent heard that much:) so i had some fun with that!



PS i got this from a gumball machine, you turned it and when i got a green one all the ladies OOOHED and AHHED. "GREEN,that is very rare, the prizes are great!" I bound inside to see tables of pumps and water bottles and shirts. and....antlers. Yup. Lucky me:) Antlers are for the green gumballs. Oh well. I guess i dont need another bike pump!

Lowpoints:
Seeing Michelle roll in all beat up, glad she is ok.

Riding in the pouring rain, that stinks. But i know i can do it.

No brakes on descents for about 20 miles after that. Or at least realizing if i rode my front brakes I had an  ENDO waiting to happen. So was smart about that.

Seeing Rich roll in after the pulled the riders for bad weather. Too bad he couldnt meet his goal of 300K but i was glad he was safe.

Getting ANOTHER pansy massage from the students. Wont complain, but i am, i know. I had the same thing at Chisago. Just bad luck. I was gractious dont worry but come on people, if you are at a race you may want to not tell me you have joint problems and cant give any pressure. Laughing that Scott and Rich had the best massages ever, their massage therapists were hammering on them!

The beds, the pillows, the flies in the room, did i say location?

The continental breakfast = CARB BOOM. NOt a fruit or protein to be seen. So what do we do? hit the land of the EGG mcMuffin. You gotta do what you gotta do. At that point sunday morning we had no interest in a simple sugar.

Getting home sunday and going to swim, at 1500 i needed a nap. Game over. I got out.

So that is about it. I dont get to go to Wisconsin again ( well other than for a swim race next weekend!) until the big dance. Getting closer......


9 comments:

Steve said...

I was thinking about this post for a while, and then it hit me. I love your attitude. I trust you to be a straight shooter, and this post is awesome, cuz you had a great weekend. You have the ability to laugh at yourself, let your hair down and have fun. You realize this is fun, and for fun

Life has some serious stuff about it, and you know that as well as anyone, and perhaps that is why your outlook is so refreshing. There are probably more lessons to be learned in a triple bypass than a race.

As always I liked this update, and wish you well this week. :)

runningyankee said...

good stuff! those fondos do sound fun though.. i might get on this IM train for the mere enjoyment of eating random snacks mid ride... hmmmm.....

Angela and David said...

At least you didn't get lost! And the aid stations at the grand fondo rides rock. I always eat delicious things I would never eat in everyday life.

GoBigGreen said...

Haha Angela, Ben and I had a mums the word pact on the more than once we got lost....but we still did the distance:)

Jennifer Harrison said...

HA, looks like a blast. My dad used to work for Lands End for a brief time and I have been to that parking lot and ridden parts of the DD course - FUN! Glad you and Ben had fun. :)

Jennifer Harrison said...

PS Did Kari say the IM train? ?????

Michelle said...

What's this about a swim race in WI?! Are you coming to Lake Monona?

Kim said...

WO! LOVE THAT RACK.. I'm so showing that to Kyle. He will love it! Glad you didn't do an endo and stayed on your bike safe and sound.. also glad you enjoyed some good beer and got in some good training! You're a champ lady!!

Jenn said...

Ha ha on the antlers!! Sounds like quite the weekend. Nice training weekend! The water belt-I once swore the day I would wear one of those would be the day I stopped running-ha! I hate the stupid thing.