What a trip!!!!!!!!

So last friday Mary and myself headed off to Wisconsin for IM MOOO!
We arrived friday evening, and my friends John, Rhonda & Katie meet us at the airport for the short drive to State street. We where to meet up with some Skirts at State Street Brat House. There we had a local brew, and headed across the street for a surprise cocktail. See It has been a few years since I have been on the state st. drinking seen, but wanted to get Mary a drink (cherry bomb) that I used to enjoy at an underground bar named The Pink Flamingo, well it has changed names and apparently drinks. For $14 we received something with not resemblance of the old cherry bombs of the past. Needless to say, I ended up drinking mine and most of Mary's. Sorry about that sweetheart!
Saturday a.m. we where off to the IM venue to check in for our volunteering job, and then we where off to the lake for one loop of the IM swim course. The water was so perfect. We swam 30min and headed off to get our hour run in. I took Mary to one of my old running routes. Howard Temlin trail, along the beautiful Lake Mendota. It was so nice to share such a great place with my loved one. It is amazing sharing things with Mary that mean so much to us, and that most people just don't understand. Running along a lake, with shade, on a dirt path, with tons of other runners and bikers! Does it get better?
Yes, it actually does. Sunday morning we arose a like 7am ish, which is sleeping in very late for us. We headed to my favorite place to run, The UW arboretum! Mary and I ran our 2hr run through some of the best running you could ask for, it just flew right by. We bot just really enjoyed the scene, and the 100's of runners and bikers out there with us. At this point we are getting very spoiled. 68degrees and beautiful yet again. Does it get any better than this?
After our run we headed for coffee and bagels and a shower. We relaxed for a little while watching the start of the IRONMAN online. Our friend Hillary Biscay was leading the entire swim and bike portions of the race, and we started getting extremely excited for her. So we couldn't sit still any longer, and decided to head to the run course so we could catch up with some of our many friends doing the race, and to cheer Hillary on for the final stretch. We did see all of our friends on the run from our position on State st. We camped out at about the 25.5 mark of the marathon. Finally we hear the crowds screaming and we jumped to our feet, fingers crossed that the cheers where for the 1st place women, and wishing deep down for it to be Hillary. As the 1st place female lead bike came around the corner and Hillary was right behind it we just about flipped out!!! We started screaming and running down State St. right next to her, what an amazing moment. We realize that if we want to see her finish we have to hammer up hill with all our shit to beat her there. So Mary and I take off, It was not pretty but we got there just as she was coming down the final 50 yards. SO Amazing!!! Now after Hillary finishes and does her interviews and etc... I get to hang out with her for a few and talk to her about the race and what she is feeling. To give you an idea of how competitive she is, when Mary and I where running beside her on State St. she said she could see us out of the corner of her eye and was thinking, "I can't let them run faster than I am" So she kicked it in one last time. How crazy?!
Now to give you an idea of how determined Hillary was, she had been in the lead the entire race until she was passed at 19 miles of the run, and was dropped to a minute back at 23miles. At that point she said to herself, "bullshit, I promised to myself I was going to win this race today"! So she started pushing it. She closed the gap back to :30 seconds at 24miles , and then realized that she could do it. She took back the lead at 25miles, and ended up winning by 2:30! That is called dropping the hammer, to put 3minutes on her competition at that point of an Ironman within 1mile is nothing short of impossible! DAMN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So anyway Mary and I worked the finish line catch and seeing almost all of our friends, and our last catch of the shift was truly that! We had to carry our last person to the medic tent because she was coming in and out of it, and was white as a ghost. What a day!!!
Does it get any better than that?
Well!!!!! We wake up sunday morning early and head down to sign up for the 2009 IM MOO. After about and hour or so of standing in 55 degrees and rain we get it done, and have just enough time to get our hour run before the airport.
I once again took Mary to one of my old trails for runners and bikers only. It is 54 degrees and raining, YES!!!! Finally a run in the rain, my most favorite thing!!! It has been at least 2 years since I have had a chance to do it. So we just rain and enjoyed ourselves wishing that it would never end!!!!!!!! Thanks for sharing this great weekend with me Mary. There is no one in the world I would have wanted to be there with me other than you!!!
I won't go into the horrible flight back you had! HA!!
We hope to head back to the land of MOOO sometime next spring for a week long training block.
Until then!!!!