Coeur d'Alene 2007

That's the new plan. I'm signed up and ready to go. Again. I've got a whole new attitude towards training (maybe it's because it's soooo far away still). NO! That's not it - it's because I went to watch all my friends do the race this year and for the first time ever I got emotional watching an Ironman.

It was really enjoyable being in CDA. Brian and I decided that if we were going to go, we were going to make a vacation out of it. We didn't want to get all caught up in the Ironman hooplah - we were going to have some fun, dammit!

I got up Thursday morning and swam the course with my IM buddies. DAMN, that water was COLD. I'm talking freezing. Like painfully cold. I had a full wetsuit on - and it took my breath away. Not to mention my face hurt when I began to swim. I actually started swimming out to the first buoy, stopped and thought to myself "why am I doing this?, I'm not doing the race this year". I turned around to head back to shore while thinking - "C'mon Adrian, this is why you're not an Ironman = you're a wimp". SO, I turned around again and swam one loop of the course. It was hard - because of the water temp, but I felt good. Later that day Brian, William and I had lunch with the gang and went to check out the town. Just as we remembered, very cute and the weather couldn't be better. Friday night some of us went to dinner at this place called Cedars Restaurant. It was nice - a little more upscale than the regular places in town. Strangest thing - a few of the guys at our table recognize this man at the table next to us. It's John Elway. How cool is that? Really, really cool if you're my husband. He was really excited! He even asked if he and Will could get a photo with the hall-of-famer. That has to be one of the highlights of the trip!

Friday Brian went mountain biking with another one of our friends that came up to watch, so it was me and Will. We picked up the IM people and drove the bike course. Looked a little tougher that what I'd expected. All was well until Will decided to barf in the car. Oooohhhhh Yeahhh! We quickly pulled over, stripped him down, put on fresh clothes and went on our way. My friends in the car got to enjoy a little piece of the "heaven" I experience from time to time! It wasnt' really that bad - but I'm used to it, especially since the Little Guy barfed about three time on the plane on our way to Idaho. YUMMY.

Saturday I slept in, Brian and Will went hiking. Later on I got a massage at the resort, which was awesome. The resort is sooo nice! We pretty much took it easy since Sunday was going to be a long day.

Sunday morning I got up at 4:45 to take all the IM people down to the race start. They still had 2 hours before the gun went off, but everyone was out there - I guess they couldn't sleep. You could see the nervousness / anxiousness in their eyes. Soon though, they'd settle down and be in motion. I hung out and took pictures as they were preparing to start their big day. I also got a good place on the beach to get pictures of them coming out of the water from their first loop. As they were finishing the swim, I went back to the hotel to pick up Brian and LG. We made it back into town to see a lot of them on the bike. I went for a run, I ran one loop of the run course and I was able to see all the bikers as they came through. First all the pro women, then my friends. The run course seemed very easy, pretty flat and had a great view of the lake. The only thing is that it was heating up and there wasn't much shade. Once you ran through the neighborhood and got out to CDA Lake Rd, it was HOT! I knew that by the time the athletes got out there, they were going to be struggling. The temps were expected to be 95! After the run we had lunch and watched everyone come in off the bike and head out on the run. It was really fun to see and cheer them on. I really hope we made a little bit of a difference!

We watched all day long - as the first finishers were coming in, you could hear the crowd getting fired up! I walked over to see some of them and I witnessed the sweetest thing. This man ran up to his wife, kissed her on the cheek and grabbed his son. He carried him across the finish line. I got a little choked up! I guess it's the whole "motherly thing" that kicked in... That wasn't the only time I cried... as my friends started finishing, I got sad because I was supposed to be out there, I was supposed to hear people clapping for me too! I was sick of being a spectator! This was Ironman #4 for me to support and watch... The great thing was that I had hoped that it would fuel my drive to train for it again. I felt the passion within that told me I have to be there next year. I want to hear the words "Adrian Hasenbauer, you are an Ironman"!