Branson 70.3 - Sept 19, 2010

the day started out as you might expect, up at 4:30am to eat breakfast and then head down to the water and our bikes..... Karen (Happy Birthday - race day was her birthday!) and I look pretty relaxed.



Thank goodness for teammates - would've been a lot harder to get in that water without a pat on the back (and a hug!) from Susie!


Well, there were positives and negatives last Sunday during the race for sure -
the highlights? swim time and blood sugars
the lowlights? brutal bike course and not finishing the race

Highlights first!
I took almost 5.5 minutes off my last timed 1.2 mile swim race (2 weeks prior)! My last race was 1:00:04. Branson's 1.2 mile swim was 54:39!
My blood sugar going into the water was 124, out of the water was 160. An hour into the bike - 136. Two hours into the bike - 153. Three hours into the bike - 167. End of the bike was an expected 251. Correction made and down to 204 in an hour!



Now the lowlights....
The bike had 5000 vertical feet of climbing and took me FIVE hours. Which didn't leave enough time for me to slowly limp through the 'run' which was more of a walk, it appeared, for most of the participants. I 'quit' after mile 5 and headed back around and through the finish line.

My blood sugars after I cut my basal for after-race insulin sensitivity - 251 and finished at 204. I can't believe how good they were still! This gives me great confidence in the 140.6 mile distance of the full Ironman that I will be completing next fall! :)




The team did some teamy goodness events - like the old time photos!!


*A year from now you'll see a picture of me crossing the finish line at Ironman Wisconsin on September 11. 2011 (my niece's 21st birthday!)*

--but for now (I did go for a short bicycle ride this morning) I will NOT swim, bike or run competitively... only short, fun stints in those 3 sports as I now am preparing for ski season by taking out my mountain bike - will post pictures of blood from that soon enough (I'm guessing)

This past weekend... sorry for the 'late' post but that's how long the weekend lasted!

Saturday, September 11 - 7:10am - Karyn gets on a plane.... to Madison, WI! To visit Team WILD teammate Kathy!!! I get on the plane with Karen, also from Team WILD, because we are going there to see and experience IRONMAN Wisconsin. Yeah! We are going to be GREAT spectators - I promise... seriously, we were/are!

We ran around Madison. we see the run start, the transition area, the finish line....

Sunday, we got up at 5:30am and we watched the swim.....


Only in Wisconsin is this even close to okay.....




We have a teammate in Chicago and her team, TriMonsters, was hosting a tent and cheering section at mile 51 and mile 91 of the bike (same place) - so we went there and enjoyed what there was to enjoy....
And, apparently, IRONWOMEN are sexier - which we already knew!


Including my friend from college - Joanna~ at mile 91


But there were helpful signs along the way....


We waited until midnight (the cutoff) and saw all there was to see....... and still.....



and still...... ON MONDAY, we ALL signed up for IM WI 2011! Wow! Really?!?!?!? This silly group of diabetic women are going to do IM WI 2011?!?!? Oh yes we are, oh yes we are...... You all knew I was crazy all along, you just didn't know there were more like me ;) There will be 10 of us???? Here's the first FIVE -

That's all.... until after my FIRST 1/2 IRONMAN on Sunday, 9/19 - that's 70.3 miles by swimming, biking and running in ONE DAY..... update early next week when we get back from Branson!

GO WILD!!!!!!

Labor day Fun!

Labor day weekend was full of lots of different fun activities...

The Warburton/Shults came to town! We had some fun bumming around Sloan's lake park while Karyn spent the morning at a tri rehearsal at Boulder Res.

Saturday night we went up to the condo to visit with Mom and Dad. The night was pretty low key since we had so much fun Saturday!

Sunday morning lead to some excitement Russ joined us for a lot of fun with pigeons!
In the afternoon we jammed in two friends BBQs... You never want to miss out on those since first at Greg's house we had the famous smoked brisket, and I brought some Salmon to smoke. I met up with a few work friends, and we moved on to Erin and Jakes... Jake invited us on a 4x4 adventure with his Mother visiting.
We took a trip from Rollinsville to Alice and back. Google Maps sends you via the interstate, but trust me, we crossed both ways without hitting pavement!





As we hit Kennsington peak, we looked back to see the start of the 4mile file in Boulder. this was quite impressive. Several small communities west of Boulder were evacuated!