My family always went up to Truckee (just outside of Tahoe) for
Christmas and my cousin and I would wake up early and go upstairs to see what
Santa had brought us. A lot of mornings
it would still be dark outside and I remember the upstairs just glowing from
the lights and the tinsel on the tree.
It looked like one of those cheesy 80’s profile portraits that was all
faded and glimmery, but in my mind was beautiful. We’d walk around the Christmas tree looking
at tags, seeing what was for each of us.
The intricate and creative wrapping would intrigue us and sometimes we’d
beg to open one gift before breakfast.
We would get so giddy and excited.
And the anticipation for the entire week leading up to Christmas, oh my,
there are no words.
Last Friday I got giddy and excited and I felt like I had
when I was a kid on Christmas morning and the week or so leading up to it. I had met a woman at the USA Triathlon Coaching
Certification class who had done Ironman UK.
For a few months now I’ve been trying to pick my 2013 Ironman
event. I was focused on Ironman Lake
Placid, but a group of my Trident buddies were headed back to Ironman Coeur
d’Alene. I wanted to do a new course,
but I knew training without the support of the CdA 12 would be a whole
different experience. And quite
honestly, I wasn’t ready to do another Ironman without them. CdA was my first Ironman and it was
amazing. I didn’t break in land speed
records, but I finished with a smile and so proud of what I’d achieved, what we’d
all achieved.
I have never run a
marathon with a group of people and seen them all smiling at the finish
line. There are always “bite me” moments
and sheer glares of death, where you say something to someone who is at the
“bite me” stage and you feel like you must evade their stare or you may never
speak again, EVER…that didn’t happen in CdA.
Everyone was so supportive of each other and just happy the whole
day. I honestly can’t even put into
words how amazing my entire training experience and my Ironday was. I wanted another one of those days, but
nothing had truly struck me yet like the anticipation of doing CdA had.
I’d been looking at doing Lake Placid and then got Ironman
UK on my mind. The English countryside
is absolutely gorgeous and yes, the scenery is a top priority in my Ironman
picks. If I’m going to be out there
doing something for as long as it takes me to do and Ironman, it damn well
better be fricken gorgeous.
On the morning of June 15, 2012 (note, that I’m adding some
suspense in here) I texted my training buddy Jack Ogle and said, “I want to do
IM England at some point”. This
statement was ignored. Four hours later
I got a text back from Jack. It simply
said “Tahoe!” To which I replied. “WHAT?
Are they doing one???” And the
saga begins…
I nearly yanked Carlo’s arm off, who was sitting next to me
at the time, and later said he’d never seen me so excited for anything, EVER. I don’t know how many text messages were
exchanged within the next few hours, but that feeling came back. I got so excited. THIS was the next Ironman for me. I texted Steve “Papi” Holstein, who was by
far my biggest mental asset at IM CdA.
Our text conversation went as follows:
-
Me (2:51PM):
IM in Tahoe!!! - Papi (2:52PM): Sweet! We’re at Disney World
- (UGH) I will let you all chuckle for a minute here and recover before I continue with our texts.
- Papi (2:52PM): I saw there is going to be a full IM in Tahoe!
- Me (2:53PM): That is what I just told you!!!
I do admit that my initial text was not clear.
Ironman Lake Tahoe was announced on a Friday afternoon. Registration began the following Monday
afternoon. It was all any of us were talking
about all weekend. Every time I saw
someone who was planning to sign up I’d just yell “TAHOE!” As Ironman is becoming more popular, events
are selling out much faster. Many of us
anticipated an immediate sell out of Tahoe.
So I set a reminder on my phone
to alert me a few minutes before
registration was opening and I checked the site 27 times throughout the
morning until the registration link was up (not live yet, just VISIBLE).
Monday I began getting texts from people. A select few are below…
-
“Is it time yet???”- “I’m so nervous. How much is it?”
- “I’m tired of waiting!!”
- “I need to have my husband have our baby!” (yes, those plans were put on hold for IM Lake Tahoe)
- “I had a dream that I was going to Active.com on the computer to get things ready for sign up and all of the keys had been pulled of my computer!!!”
As the clock approached 2PM Central…
- “U ready??”
- “Now!”
- “GO, GO, GO!”
And after registration opened, the texts continued to flow…
-
“I’m In!!!” (there were A LOT of those)- “That puppy is pricy”
- “$708.75!” (My response, “we are stupid”) And yes, for those of you that are wondering, that is how much we paid
- “Wowza!!”
- “This is your fault you know” (Don’t worry, they’ll thank me later)
- “Wow, who did not sign up for Tahoe? I want to be a Sherpa”
- “Looks like I’ll be purchasing a gas mask in the near future” (We’re gonna have to figure out the whole altitude training)
So, to the 25+ (for those of you who haven’t plastered
Facebook with this new feat you are going to tackle), here is to over a year of
hard work, surprises, fits, excitements, frustrations, joy, laughs, and
stories. Steve, Jack, Tamara, Heather,
Chuck, Troy, Christa, Will, Etter, Jason, Michael, Kulka, Jen, Angela, Kelly,
Misty, Myrna, Brian, Alison, Missy, Russell, Kimberly, Cathy, and Rich - I
am so excited to share my second Ironday with such amazing people and can’t
wait for Christmas next year, which for many of us, will fall on September 22nd.
Good for you! It's great to have such a tie in as a childhood memory! Should not be short on any roadside beauty!.....Maybe a tad cold at the start!
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