The Day After Ironman...
Didn't get much sleep, legs hurt too bad to get good sleep I put on my compression shorts and that seemed to help, but still every time I stood or stand up it feel like a furnace in my quads. There is a little soreness like back, core, calf's, and hamstrings but quads and blisters are what hurts. I try to stretch when I can but its just going to take time. We wake up at 6:00 am, we being my family early birds, I tell Mindy, hey lets go into town and have breakfast, so I can hear her stories of yesterday, and to see if we can get one of those Ironman Cozumel posters that are all over the place. She says yeah, we hop in the car and as I am driving I already see someone has that same idea as well, some of the places I saw the posters were gone. Mindy said there were some in town a little bit and head that direction, we find one close to a store and I negotiate a price and I get the poster, HELL YEAH!!! So we go to the restaurant that we love, the Las Palmeras. They had an egg white omelet that matched Joni's in the Life Cafe, close but not better Joni :) As we eat I see the paper had an article about the Ironman so I buy it, as we sit Mindy says the guy close to our table was cheering for me, so I go over to him and I told him thanks for the encouragement, he said I did great, and it was a pleasure having us on the island. He was very nice, as he left he wished me luck in my next race and to have a good day. Oh the legs are not happy with me, but I am glad I feel this way as I left everything on that race course. But man I never thought picking my foot up to get on or off the curb would hurt so bad.
Went back to condo, helped Becca get ready to leave she had to be at airport at 11:30 so we hung out and I told the story of the race, and it was time for her to leave. She was going to take home a painting that the family had gotten for me. Its a picture of what Mindy sees when I finish a race, its awesome. So she took it home because she had less luggage than we do. As she went the cleaning service came so we went next door to eat Uva's. We walked because g-daddy had the car and there was a wedding going on as we arrived. I thought how funny, we watched the wedding and ate. While there people asked me if I did the race yesterday and I told them yes, complete strangers telling me congrats. That was awesome, a fellow Ironman sat down and we gave the nod to each other, you know "the nod" of congratulations. We ate and the waiter was taking a long time because of the wedding but I was in no hurry. So we talked to the wedding planner and she asked if I did the race and I told her yes. She told me how proud she was of the community's support of the event. I told her the experiences of coming into town and seeing the locals cheer. Then she went on her way. The kids were restless so they went to the condo, I stayed to pay.
As I sat there I kind of laughed, how fitting is it that on this day someone is getting married and starting a new life. 5 years ago when I married Mindy at the beach I did not know the possibilities that were in front of me, as I looked at my kids running around and reminiscing about yesterday I teared up again. I accomplished my dream, and I am living my dream, I am reborn to the new me. A new place in life. I am happy. I hope that with this race I/we were able to open something new to this community. I will remember that little kids eyes as I raced past him on my bike. Maybe some day he would want to or have access to something like this. I though about the brotherhood that I am now a part of, yes its elite and strong. Such a powerful feeling, now what to do with it. As I was on the bike yesterday I was looking for my mission/vision in my life and I think I came close to finding it. It still needs some tweaking. I leave a good tip because our waiter was working so hard. I walked on the beach, very slowly. You could tell the athletes from our walk. Found out all the athletes staying at the condo became Ironman yesterday. And one, won her age group she finished in front of me by a few min. As we talked in the court yard, someone who raced in Kona recently said the winds on this course were worse then out in Kona, I believed her. Then she told me about a jeweler here that is making Ironman pendents, then we exchanged stories of yesterday, It was funny because all of them were hip deep in the cold swimming pool.
The kids were ready for a nap and Mindy and her mom went to town to shop. Kids slept and I wrote on my blog, it was peaceful. When they got back they found the jeweler and said he was making it, wow he is making that pendent. We go to pick it up and man I had to walk over from the car to the jewelers, across the street and down a few blocks, OUCH!!!! I forgot how back it hurts to go down a small step after some marathons. We get to the store and he shows me the pendent, it was beautiful. The guy had made it perfectly, that was Mindy's mom present to me.
Went back to condo, helped Becca get ready to leave she had to be at airport at 11:30 so we hung out and I told the story of the race, and it was time for her to leave. She was going to take home a painting that the family had gotten for me. Its a picture of what Mindy sees when I finish a race, its awesome. So she took it home because she had less luggage than we do. As she went the cleaning service came so we went next door to eat Uva's. We walked because g-daddy had the car and there was a wedding going on as we arrived. I thought how funny, we watched the wedding and ate. While there people asked me if I did the race yesterday and I told them yes, complete strangers telling me congrats. That was awesome, a fellow Ironman sat down and we gave the nod to each other, you know "the nod" of congratulations. We ate and the waiter was taking a long time because of the wedding but I was in no hurry. So we talked to the wedding planner and she asked if I did the race and I told her yes. She told me how proud she was of the community's support of the event. I told her the experiences of coming into town and seeing the locals cheer. Then she went on her way. The kids were restless so they went to the condo, I stayed to pay.
As I sat there I kind of laughed, how fitting is it that on this day someone is getting married and starting a new life. 5 years ago when I married Mindy at the beach I did not know the possibilities that were in front of me, as I looked at my kids running around and reminiscing about yesterday I teared up again. I accomplished my dream, and I am living my dream, I am reborn to the new me. A new place in life. I am happy. I hope that with this race I/we were able to open something new to this community. I will remember that little kids eyes as I raced past him on my bike. Maybe some day he would want to or have access to something like this. I though about the brotherhood that I am now a part of, yes its elite and strong. Such a powerful feeling, now what to do with it. As I was on the bike yesterday I was looking for my mission/vision in my life and I think I came close to finding it. It still needs some tweaking. I leave a good tip because our waiter was working so hard. I walked on the beach, very slowly. You could tell the athletes from our walk. Found out all the athletes staying at the condo became Ironman yesterday. And one, won her age group she finished in front of me by a few min. As we talked in the court yard, someone who raced in Kona recently said the winds on this course were worse then out in Kona, I believed her. Then she told me about a jeweler here that is making Ironman pendents, then we exchanged stories of yesterday, It was funny because all of them were hip deep in the cold swimming pool.
The kids were ready for a nap and Mindy and her mom went to town to shop. Kids slept and I wrote on my blog, it was peaceful. When they got back they found the jeweler and said he was making it, wow he is making that pendent. We go to pick it up and man I had to walk over from the car to the jewelers, across the street and down a few blocks, OUCH!!!! I forgot how back it hurts to go down a small step after some marathons. We get to the store and he shows me the pendent, it was beautiful. The guy had made it perfectly, that was Mindy's mom present to me.
We had decided to go to the Jimmy Buffet Margaritaville restaurant, since me and Mindy went there in Hawaii, plus the place was big for me from yesterday. As I stated last time that every time I saw that place I knew I was near the finish line or the turn around. Mindy's mom decided that she wanted to get the huge poster they had in the front welcoming Ironman to Cozumel, I didn't think she would get it, but guess what. She asked and they said they would take it down tomorrow and she could have it, so I know have the Ironman poster from the place that helped me get through my race. It will go in my garage, yes I got Mindy's permission :). As we sat there we started talking to Boyd Conrig, a pro athlete that raced. Talking to him was amazing, then we asked how he finished and he didn't have a good race and slowed to finish just under 10 hours, REALLY??? Anyway he was nice and we saw him talk to the only man to break the 8 hour mark for triathlons, Luc Van Lierde. Wow I was in some serious company.
As he was talking he had told me that he was thinking he was going to retire from Ironmans as a pro and just do local ones for fun. He had said his job was getting in the way of training to be competitive. We wished him well and we left. Oh Al and Lupe I had a margarita for you guys there, Thanks! We go home and I was thinking how fortunate I was to run across Boyd at this time in my life, not sure if I will ever be that competitive but I definitely can here someone telling me that I am right where I need to be to reach my potential. My legs were still pretty beat up but they were getting better by the min. I packed up my bike and thanked it for being so awesome this year, and got it ready to leave on wed, I had hoped that I packed it up right as well.
Tuesday we had decided to take troy on the ferry to playa del camrmen, but before I wanted to take him snorkeling by the condo. He was timid at first and didn't want to but I told him I would hold him and made sure it was ok for him. We got to some rocks where I saw some fish and told him we would count to three and go under and I would point to the fish. We counted to three went under and I pointed out 3 blue fish. He was so excited when we came up, he said, "Daddy I saw the fish!! I saw 3 blue fish!" We did this for a few more min and he wanted a break So I swam him back to shore. A couple of min later he wanted to come back in but he wanted to swim to me, so I sat in the water and he did, I was so proud of him. We snorkeled for a bit longer and then showered to get ready for the ferry. Got dropped of and took the ferry to Playa, there were still tons of athletes moving bikes back to the main land. I talked to a few athletes on the ferry and we decided that even though the course was flat it was still very challenging. The wind was a big factor in the day. Got off the ferry and went to eat, at some restaurant, where Troy got his first schooner of OJ and he danced away on the stage they had, he takes after his father what can I say. Troy got some ice cream and it was sooooo good!!! Finished and walked back to the ferry dock, where Troy played in the water fountain for a bit then we hit the beach.
This was the place where you see white sand beaches and blue waters and surf, so me and troy got in the water to do some body surfing. We were having fun until I didn't see a wave and huge wave came and made me hit troys head with mine, like ouch it hurt. We caught the 4:00 ferry back and took a taxi back to the condo where we stayed the night and just relaxed. Morning we woke up and soaked up the sun knowing we were going to come back to Austin to a cold front. Lets just say we started traveling at 10:00 am and finally got home around 9:30 pm.
Got to the airport at 10:15, stood in line for a hour to find out the flight was delayed 2 hours, oh joy! Got on the plane with some grumpy people, we did not have seats together, so I asked the guy to change seats he promptly said no. So I got up and the kids just melted down asking for daddy and screaming, quickly the guy changed his mind =}, got to Houston and took 2 kids, me Mindy, bike box and 6 pieces of luggage through immigration and customs, 2 hours later we get to our plane to Austin. We sit on the plane for 50 min for a 29 min flight, really. Got to Austin I go get the car, yup flat tire, fix it with fix a flat, get Mindy and luggage with NO BIKE!! The bike didn't make the flight, they would deliver it later that night close to midnight. We drive home there is a fire truck and ambulance by our house, couldn't get to the house drive around another way to the house (it was a minor wreck) close to 10 and waited for the bike.
DAMN IT FEELS GOOD TO BE HOME!
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