I know you are all wondering where I have been this past week or so. Let's see, throw in a stomach ailment on Monday night, having to get payroll and accounting stuff done on Tuesday and Wednesday, then getting to NY on Thursday by 11 o'clock at night and well you get the idea. I had no time to think really. Now I do and I am getting a huge case of the jitters so I thought I would blog it all out.
Let's start with getting to NY and invading my poor mother's house. We come in like an infestation of ants. We all got to sleep late and woke up on the earlier side. It was a pug-a-licious wake up. My mom's dog is too excited to greet us all in the morning. I told Mom all she needed to do was pull the dogs tail like a grenade pin, toss her into the bed with the girls and let her explode with all the puggy love goodness that she gives. Sorry, I got a little off track there.
Friday Brad and I had to take the train into the city. That part wasn't so bad, it was taking the subway to our hotel that got a bit dicey. My husband almost decked the guy who decided to push past him and blocked his way out of the subway. There I am, standing on the platform waiting for Brad to get off of the subway, and the doors were closing on his bike. Ahhhhhh! Thankfully it all worked out after a well placed set of handlebars and threat on my husband's behalf, he got off. We carry our bikes up the stairs, walk two blocks and there we were at the Hotel BelleClaire. It's a quirky kind of place, sort of like a youth hostel with a nice staff to hold the door open for you. Thankfully we got a room with our own bathroom. We come to find not all of the rooms do. I have missed the entrance of the hotel every time we leave and come back. It definitely has charm, and by no means is a high end locale. It suits our purposes just fine, although the elevators fit three to four people max...Try it with two bikes, two people, two back packs and two small suitcases.
We got settled in, and decided to grab some lunch at the diner across the street. Great groceries I might add. Your typical Greek establishment, but there is one thing that Greeks do right besides coming up with nifty gods and that is the diner biz. I wish there were one on every street corner near us, but there isn't so this was a treat for sure. We ordered two sandwiches and split them. I got a prosciutto pannini with grilled eggplant, mozzarella and spinach. Brad got the chicken souvlaki. My mouth and stomach were duly impressed with each. What a great lunch. Then we we went down to the Hilton for packet pick up and the race briefing. I don't remember much of anything other then the current in the Hudson is so swift that I will have a personal best swim time, there is a steep hill right out of the bike transition and to have my bike in a low gear in transition and to not take my yellow bracelet off or I won't be able to retrieve my bike after the race. The rest of what he was saying was coming through like the adults on a Peanuts special. Waa, waaa, waa, waaa.... Done with that we hop the subway back to the hotel and relax for about 45 minutes before we have the Underwear Run in Central Park.
The Underwear Run is undoubtedly the most wacky thing I have every participated in. The atmosphere was circus like. A bunch of giggling adults, stripping to their skivvies, getting ready to run 1.7 miles. It was a hoot. I was in my Wonder Woman outfit, Brad was the Man of Steel. I believe I was one of the most prolifically photographed people because I was posing, albeit in a goofy, exaggerated manner, like a super hero. I was playing it up big time and was stopped by most of the professional photographers to pose for a few pics. I was having too much fun to stop myself. My favorite two were the guys in the teeny, tiny speedos with the word sexy across the behind and these huge, yellow and blue afro wigs. They were hilarious and such fun, good natured, not rude and obnoxious guys. Their attitude was absolutely infectious, Brad finally told me to stop egging them on with my stretch ideas, like Hey Yellow and Blue dude, you forgot to stretch your hamstrings! Which of course they would have to happily oblige with a string of almost nasty, totally hysterical, over exaggerated poses that got the crowd whooping and hollering their lusty approval. Finally the horn blows and off we go, a whole gaggle of people in various types of underwear, there was a bride and groom, there was a guy and his dog in matching boxers, there were men in ladies frilly things, girls in mens, it was a whole cross dressing, costume wearing, underwear sporting frenzy of sweaty runners.
During the course of our run we had a celebrity siting. There he was, P Diddy with his body guards. I screamed hello, he waved back. Brad said I should have asked for a picture with him, me, the underwear Wonder Woman and P Diddy, that would have been a hoot, but I didn't really want to stop running. It was so hot, I might not have started again!
The spectators were going wild, and the end was in sight. We hoofed it and finished, drenched in sweat because it was Rain Forest hot and muggy last night. Got our free boxers, free t-shirt, free Snapple water and if we wanted, free Chipotle Burrito. We went back to the clothing corral, got our bag of stuff and we were done. It was one of the most fun things I have done and would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to run in their undies someday.
We took it easy for a few minutes after we got back to our room and Brad decided we needed some Thai food for dinner. We went and grabbed a bite at around 10:30 at night. It was hands down the best Thai I have had. Brad's grilled skirt steak was divine, my Chicken Pad Thai was perfection. We got these wonderful appetizers that we had no idea what they were before hand. Pretty, wonton like, steamed and fried packages of yumminess. The green steamed ones I would recommend the highest dipped in the first clear sauce with the chili peppers floating in it. I know you are so glad I let you know.
So here we are. The day before my biggest race of my season. My mind is a racing mess of worry, excitement, fear, determination. I know I can do this, right? It isn't too much farther then the I Love the Tavern Tri. I did those distances, I was swimming up current for much of the 750, this is all down current. The guy at the briefing said the fastest swim ever recorded for the course was 9 minutes and change. That's pretty frickin impressive. The best time at the Tavern was around there too if I am remembering right. This is 5 miles more on the bike. I can do five miles more on the bike right? Even if I avg. just 16 miles per hour, I will finish the bike leg in 1.5 hours. Then the run. That's scary. A whole 10K after the previous two legs. Like Brad said, what the absolute worst thing that happens Dee? You have to walk to catch your breath? So what? My goal is to finish this race in about 3 hours. It is doable. I think the bike course has me tweaked a bit. You can't preride it and formulate a strategy like with the other triathlons I have done. The hills will be surprise, save the first one out of transition that they warned us about. I keep trying to see myself doing the race, but I can't focus on any one discipline without freaking myself out. I am going to sit and quitely try to do this. To see myself out there, handling each stage as it comes. I know not feeling well this week didn't bode well for my training. I felt okay during the run last night, and I didn't have the adrenaline to count on. So here's hoping my next blog is a happy sunny place to visit. That I am gushing about my race and how great it felt to do. If not, I can always compete in the Underwear runs around the country. I can't imagine how many My Space pages and Facebooks I will be on today...
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