The First Half

So for some reason, I can't get the race photos off the CD and onto my blog (I carried a disposable camera for the race, so they had to get developed, as opposed to the easy-peesy uploading of the digital camera. So I figured I would at least post the pictures of pre- and post- race. They are mostly of Cheese and I goofing around and enjoying some down time away from work and the Chicago winter (p.s. It was -4 degrees when we left Friday morning, and that was the temp WITHOUT the windchill).

Enjoy.

Ahhh, beach time. We spent a chunk of Friday hanging at the beach, but both of us did so without sunscreen. Cheese paid the price with some bad burn to his back legs, but I have toughened up my skin up from years of practice in the sun. Hahaha....oh, I guess that's not supposed to be funny....

I am always happy on a beach and in the sun.

Cheese jumped right in - It was cold and he teased me about coming in.

But this is as close as I got....some Ironman-to-be I am....

Time for the pre-race pasta dinner. We found this really cure Italian place next door to our hotel, which was surprisingly good.

Carbo-loading at it's finest.

Ha! Despite all concerns to the contrary, I eat, and I eat A LOT. Notice I am on the last two forkfulls of my once-full plate.

And this is where the story breaks. This photo was taken this morning, right before we left for home, on the balcony on our room that overlooked the bay. Of course, it was 75 and sunny, as opposed to yesterdays 65, windy and partly cloudy. But whatever. I was just glad to have the sun on my skin for a few seconds.

We actually both woke up feeling pretty good this morning. I have had no back or knee pain since the race, or all day today. I think Cheese had some minor ankle pain this morning, but nothing to severe. I would say that, all things accounted for, the race was a true success.

When we got home to Chicago, we had dinner with my mom. It was really nice to catch up and hang for a while.

Me and my mom. She was so great, she listened to all our stories, and looked at all our pictures. She even sat next to me, which was no small feat, given the fact that I was super stinky from sitting on a plane all day.

So that's it for right now. I will try the race pictures again tomorrow, and give a race report (sorry, no split times or anything technical - first, this is not that kind of blog and I would not bore you with that, and second, we stopped keeping track of that after mile 3 and just enjoyed ourselves - mostly just some observations about runners and races and all that stuff).