Wyoming is a vast countryside surrounded by beautiful mountain views. We decided to check out parts of the course by driving to a designated aid station. Our first stop was checking out the start of the race. We hiked into the trail and were struck by it’s beauty. Echos of the river bouncing off the wall of rock made it seem like the river was on both sides of us. The next day we drove to the Footbridge Aid Station which was quite an adventure in itself! We forded three streams and drove along such a narrow path to get there. Thank god that section was only two miles but still took us around a half hour to cover that distance. We had to cut our hike short due to an approaching storm but not before we got a chance to reach a meadow high up and putting our feet in a roaring stream. It was SO COLD it made our feet ache!! The following day we drove up to the third aid station ( Dry Fork) that crews were allowed. We literally got there and the cold wind was blowing something fierce so we ate our lunch in the car and drove back into town. Meanwhile, all this time we were keeping an eye out for any signs of moose or bear but no such luck! Darn!!

I found out Brian was a massage therapist too and had run this before. This year he had a heel injury which caused him to drop out. He recounted the story of Carl Meltzer being attacked by a moose 2 times during last years race near the turnaround point. Carl was so shook up by the incident that he had some kids run ahead to make sure the coast was clear. He still managed to win the race!

I head to the finish and meet up with John, Tammy, and Miles who all dropped out near or at the turnaround. I decided to put on my stinky clothes for the 3rd time in over 24 hours and run up the road to meet Jerry. The sun was beating down pretty hard on the runners and there was no shade. I finally meet up with him with about 4 miles to go. We walked down the road together and reach an aid station that was giving out Popsicles, YUM! We cross the highway and begin to run in to the finish. He did it!

It has become a tradition of a sort to watch Jerry take off his shoes and socks and view the agony of the feet, EEEEEEEWWWW!!!

The next day, the Rotary Club put on a great pancake breakfast for all the runners, supporters, volunteers, and families and the awards were given out. Jerry placed third in his age group and 24th overall. Great job Jerry!!!

FRIDAY: Bimble and I drove up to Vermont on Friday evening with the bike hung on the bike rack at the rear of the truck. It rained the whole way up and all I could think of was “that poor bike, it’s getting all wet!” Being that it was not even my own bike, I had borrowed it from Hardware who graciously lent me hers since it was much lighter than my own, I felt a needed to protect the it from anything harmful. We arrived at the Brandon Motor Lodge and took the bike inside and all our belongings and quickly settled in with a small cup of wine. Ahhh! We slept in and just relaxed well into late morning the next day. What bliss!

SATURDAY: We finally hauled our butts out of the lodge and drove to the check in at the Vermont Sun Fitness Center. We met up with Ultra and Downhill there and finally caught up with El Toro, Loopy and her kids at a restaurant. We all were excited about the upcoming race so talk was mainly light and jovial until ET shocked us all by telling us that his room or more accurately, his bathroom, was missing something… a toilet!! We all gasped “How could that be?! That’s so weird!”  “I went in and all I saw was a sink and shower but no toilet!” he said. “You better talk to the owner about that!” I said. “Maybe you can get another room.” After that, we all went back to our rooms to get a good night’s sleep. Loopy, her kids, and ET, all were staying at the same lodge as us so when Bimble and I pulled into our parking space in front of our room one of Loopy’s kids came running up to us yelling “We found Thomas’s toilet! Loopy filled us in with the details. “When you open the door, you see the sink in front of you and the shower on the right side, but when you get in and close the door, Voila! the toilet appears right behind the door! We just laughed and thought poor ET, he must be either tired or very nervous about the race! Well, that night, sleep for me did not come until 3:30 am and we were getting up at 5am. Oh well, so much for that!

RACE DAY: We all met at the race site. The race starts and finishes at Branbury State Park. It has a huge lake, which is very clear. It’s going be a beautiful day! The mosquitoes thought so too, seeing all of us gathered together like some smorgasbord. They were relentless!  Announcements were made and Ultra, ET and I walked to the start of the race, which is the swim, a 1.2 mile 2 loop course that you swim along some inflatable buoys. ET went off in the first wave, Ultra was in the second wave and I was in the 3^rd final wave. If you have never swum with a bunch of people before, I tell you, it’s a hoot! You have feet, legs, arms, and hands all over your body and not in a real sensual way, mind you. People are scrambling and kicking their way to an open space in the water. A couple of times I looked up to see someone coming right at me. I had to scoot out of the way to avoid a literal head on collision! I finally make it out alive from the mass of crawling, kicking pool of people, whew! I get on the bike now for the next 56 miles and was so glad to see Bimble, Loopy, the kids, and Downhill cheering us on along the highway. Ultra was just behind me and we cheered each other as we passed in opposite directions. On the course, the head wind was so strong that it really slowed your progress but when you turned around it was easily 10 mph quicker.  We did two loops and by the second loop, Loopy yelled out to me “You’re 3 minutes behind ET! I couldn’t believe it but I felt good and just kept a steady rhythm.  I caught him at around 50 miles and went by cheering him on. I turned onto the road that lead back to the campground and was nearly creamed by a truck carrying a trailer. GEEEZUS! I screamed. “Keep yourself together, girl!” I told myself. The final leg was approaching, thank god! I racked my bike and headed out of the transition for the 13.1 mile run out and back. It was pretty hilly. Meanwhile, since on the bike I’d had the urge to pee pretty badly. I managed to hold on since I didn’t dare go on the bike. But once my feet hit the ground running, gravity seemed to pull everything down. I discreetly let go a little at a time fearing that I might end up looking like a sprinkler system or people might think OMG that person sprung a leak! No shame, no pride, at least I didn’t lose any time! Try it sometime when you’re out there running in a race!    Finally, I was able to focus on the race at hand and at the turn around I saw ET about a ¼ mile behind me. We cheered each other and kept going. I then cheered with Ultra and on our merry way we went. I finished in 5 hrs 10 min and found out that I had the 5^th fastest time overall in the half marathon! Not too shabby for an old fart like me. ET came in at 5 hrs and 26 min followed by Ultra who finished in 6hrs 13 min. Great job you guys!!!

“Do you still want to do that full Ironman?” I asked Ultra.  He said, “Heck no!!!” See, Ultra had this great idea that since we are doing half why not just do a full one? There is one coming up in a few weeks! Maybe next year, maybe next year…

AND FINALLY: Thank you Gary, Steve, and Force5 for all your training tips and your generosity. Thank you Sarah, for lending your bike to me…don’t worry about the aero bars, they are yours to keep. Thanks to Lisa, Mike, Karen for swimming and support and fog lens cleaner. Thanks to Ultra and ET for the fun we shared training together, lets do it again! And to all my friends who supported and cheered me on in one way or another, especially, Bimble, my biggest fan.

THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU!!!