More to come - have to go to dinner now!
And when I fall, I fall HARD AND FAST AND A REALLY LONG WAY! At least I'm good at that - wait, that's a bad thing right?
So here goes my rant/excuse/please forgive me session.
The weekend officially started on Friday when Paul and I got up and packed for our races this weekend. He was doing the Sprint Triathlon and I was doing the Aqua-Velo (swim and bike) at the Chesapeake Man Endurance Festival in Cambridge, MD. Lucky for us, my friend owns a condo right in Cambridge so lodging was not an issue at all. First we had to drive to Linden to drop off 2 of the dogs, we decided to take the puppy with us as we knew he would play nicely with Tina's guide dog, Tekla. In the rain we head to Linden and drop off the dogs with no issues, although we did end up stopping at Tractor Supply to buy a heater - but that's a whole other story. Then we head to Alexandria to pick up Tina and Tekla. Great, we are all loaded up and ready to leave Alexandria by 2pm. I mean, it's only a couple of hours over to Cambridge, right? Punch the address in the GPS and it says we'll get there at 6pm. WTH, I know it's not that far. Paul is driving and I am reading the athlete guide for the race to make sure we know all the ins and outs. Then it hits me, the GPS (which is new) must be set to avoid toll roads - OMG, it has us going UP to Baltimore to come back DOWN to Cambridge so we don't have to go over the Bay Bridge. But alas we are already pretty far north on 95. I reprogram the GPS and it takes 2 HOURS off our arrival time, thank goodness. So of course the next logical thing to do is stop and eat! Here's where my first "indiscretion" came into play - we stopped at Arby's. YES, I could have had a grilled chicken breast or two, but NO I went all out - - not just the roast beef sandwich I had to have the fake cheese spread on it! OH BOY, so it begins. On the road again and headed the correct way, over the Bay Bridge. Well, at least I thought it was the right way to go. Apparently not since it took us 2 1/2 hours to get over the bridge. It was pouring, the toll booths were backed up to the Annapolis split and they only had 2 lanes open on the bridge. UUUGGGGHHHH! We finally got to packet pickup for the race at 7:30pm, a mere 5 1/2 hours after leaving Alexandria. There was a bit of a cluster at packet pickup so once we finally got that sorted and headed to the park to rack our bikes it was 8:30pm. Bike inspection, bike racking and we are finally headed to the condo - thank goodness it was less than 2 miles away. Oh wait, the stupid gate code doesn't seem to work. I'll spare you the details, but it took us a while to get in. By now it is 9:30pm and we haven't had dinner. What? There's a Domino's across the street? Yes, I will eat pizza for dinner. Finally got to bed about 11:30pm.
Race day started with a 4:30am wake up. Breakfast was some leftover egg casserole and a cup of coffee. I think I ate something else before the race started but can't really remember. The port-a-potty line was LONG and by the time we got our wetsuits on it was time to get in the water. Not that you all care, but the swim was horrible for me. I am not a great swimmer, but I am comfortable in the water and usually don't have to put a lot of effort into keeping up with Tina. But today was a totally different story. My wetsuit, which was new, was too big so I was dragging some extra water with me, quite a bit of extra I think. Then the jellyfish, lovely lovely jellyfish. Started with one across the ankle, yea that burns but it's when they end up draped across your nose and chin that you REALLY notice them. And seeing the really big ones right under us didn't thrill me either. Finally out of the water, I was so out of it Paul had to yell at me to snap me back.
On to the bike, I knew I had to start my nutrition right away or I would really be in trouble. The bike was 112 miles and I was planning on it taking us about 6 1/2 hours. Gatorade, bonk breakers, gels and various other gooey sweet nutrition seemed to work. The bike actually went really well, even considering the flooded road we had to ride through - twice. We really pushed it at the end and passed a lot of people.
Back to the condo to shower and then find some good dinner - seafood of course, we were on the shore. But alas, it was not to be. Tina's dog (who has serious separation issues) broke out of her kennel (literally ripped the door off our kennel) and trashed the condo. She had peed, pooped and spilled black coffee all over the white bar stool and white carpet! So for the next 2 hours I sat on the floor cleaning! In the meantime Tina goes to take a shower and asks about hot water - CRAP I totally forgot you have to turn the hot water on when you get there! Cold showers for everyone!! Finally on the road home at 7:30pm. Quick stop in Easton for some bbq and home at 11pm. I actually didn't do too bad at the bbq place - beef brisket, collard greens and fries.
We'll get into Sunday later................
LMAO!
ReplyDeleteYou are a ROCKSTAR! (written by Chris)
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