Pre-race Day Pics -- Gulf Coast Half Ironman

I got up this morning at 8am & went for a very toasty 4 mile run along Front Beach Rd

Here is Lana getting into her wet suit for a practice swim. The ocean is rough -- it's a scary sight to see. You can do it Lana!
This girl's got it all day long! No Fear!
Free pasta dinner for all race participants!

Arriving in PC Beach

My plan was to head out this morning at 5am. I woke up feeling.... not so hot. Not so motivated. Searching for excuses to convince myself this was not a good idea - heading down to Gulf Coast HIM -- alone. I went back and forth rehearsing this conversation in my head: Scared girl: "What if you have an accident? "What if you cannot complete the 56 mile bike ride? You are SOOO not ready or trained for it. You will be hurting so bad by mile 25, you will not see the end in sight" Strong girl: "Get your butt up and get down there. You know you'll be glad. Stop with the pity party. Perfect timing for a get-away. Go. Do not look back. Go." Scared girl put up a good fight. She got in some really really really good punches - had me down a few times... the countdown had began.. Strong girl would jump up. Don't you fold on yourself Holly. A phone call from Bethany at 7:27am - to get me in the right gear & lend an ear...... and I was out the door. :-) Loading up black betty, throwing in the cooler and the suitcase, and making a pit stop for gas - Strong girl aint turning back.

I passed several vehicles headed to the triathlon - sweet bikes loaded up and USAT stickers -- can't be but one place they're headed. There's something neat about feeling the common bond with pure strangers on the interstate. 6 hours of driving and my neck hurts!!! I was on hwy 231 - about 45 miles from my condo and winds were bad. All the sudden I look up and black betty was so tired of the wind that she did a front flip!!! OMG. Yeah - she was on her head (flipped upside down and thrown from the back of the bike rack to the very front and almost completely sideways. Betty???? Good grief! If you're gonna jump ship, give momma some warning! :-/ So I slow way down and pull over to the side of the road - put her back in place - strap her a lot tighter and take off again. 5 min later Betty was gettin jiggy again and had done another front flip. These winds were brutal! I pull over, yet again, and add 2 more bungee cords to tie her down and she decided to give up. No more flips. That made my heart stop!!!!

So I got here and checked in. Very nice, clean condo. Weather was perfect. Beach was beautiful. I had to make 2 trips to get all my bags and bike in the condo. I'm on the 11th floor. I pulled my hair back and went for a 25 min beach walk. It was fantastic. Now it is just all about enjoying the festivities. All the welcoming events and the excitement in the air. And tomorrow is all about picking up race packets, setting up transition, and last but not least - SOAKING IT UP! ON THE BEACH! With a tasty margi & a host of friends! :-)

A New Day, A New Week... and a Vacation!

Well today is Monday & I typically hate Monday's, but I'm only working 2 days this week so I'm feeling a bit more tolerant today :-) Thursday morning I'm leaving for PC Beach for the Gulf Coast half ironman. Lana is competing in her first half IM & I'm mainly going to cheer her on. I'm also part of a relay team, doing the 56 mile bike portion of the race. I feel sorry for my teammates!!! I am not EVEN trained! I have been on my road bike a total of 2 times this year, not including the trainer rides. But hey.... the name of our team is "Here for the Party!" so...... I'm not too worried about it! Thursday is going to consist of vegging out on the beach with a very tropical -tini, -rita, or something along those lines. The weather is forecasted to be beautiful... highs in the low 80's and lows in the upper 60's for the evenings. So, Saturday there was supposed to be a 50 mile group ride meeting at 7:30am. I desperately needed at least 40 so my body doesn't go into complete shock Saturday morning. However, it stormed Friday night and was still drizzling rain Sat morning. So, I had two options & riding in the rain was not one of them. 1) Push the ride off until Sunday morning 2) Plug Black Betty into the trainer & spin for 2.5 hours.

I chose #2. Ugh.... that was my longest trainer ride by far. The first hour I was entertained by CMT's top 20 countdown. That's a drag when you're riding your trainer, but it was that........ or stupid cartoons. I tried to work in about a 50 minute routine and do it twice. I cannot say that I even rode all that hard because I wanted to make sure I just spent 2.5 hours in the saddle. I definitely worked up a sweat!!! My sports bra expelled around 8oz of sweat when I rang it out afterwards and I basically had to mop my floor under the trainer.

Saturday night? Wedding bells were ringing in Wartrace! My good friend Brian tied the knot with his beautiful bride Angel. This wedding was totally goregous being outside on a farm & the weather was blissful!!! Afterwards, Bethany & I went to the reception. There was a margarita machine & we couldn't wait to check it out! We stuffed our faces full of Bell Buckle cafe catering & then mainly focused on the margi's. The dance floor was hopping!!! But I think the party really didn't get started until Bethany claimed her fame to the special song that she owned :-) You go girl! She dropped it like it was HOT! :-) LOL


Sunday morning? Church. Yep, that's 3 in a row for me. Me & Jesus are talkin more lately... that's a good thing. I think I overheard him tell me the other day he's got a lotta work to do on me!!! :-)

This week I am going to try to take it semi-easy again so that my legs are rested for the relay at Gulf Coast. Today I am going to do an easy 5 mile run during lunch & Wednesday I plan to try and do 7 miles. That will be all unless I take a nice easy stroll Thursday evening at the beach when the sun is setting.