The Day Before Ironman

Our gracious host! She gave us her bed for the entire weekend. Skyler said that normally he wouldn't take the offer of the host's bed, but this was a big weekend and he didn't want to mess it up by sleeping bad on a futon. Jaime...you're awesome (but you already knew that)!!




Saturday was just as busy as Friday. Although we were up late the night before, we had an early morning, as I was registered to run the 5k. I felt almost silly running a 5k because it's the furthest distance race from an Ironman possible. So to make it interesting, my goal was a PR.

The 5k started and I stayed near the front. No girls passed me at Mile 1 and I was flying (6:50 mile). No girls passed me at Mile 2 (6:10--mistake?). No girls passed me at Mile 3 (6:45), but one was quickly approaching.




She passed me with just 0.1 miles left. She was flying, I don't know where she came from going that fast. I finished with a time of 20:48, my fastest 5k time by 1:30 minutes. I was talking with a few racers after and they said that the course might have been short by 0.1 mile or so. Either way, this was my fastest 5k ever and I was proud of that!




After the 5k there was a kids 1 mile race. Brandon's wife and daughter ran together. He was one proud dad.




After the race excitement settled down, Skyler and I split up. He headed to a swim practice in Tempe Town Lake and I headed to the volunteer meeting. I signed up to be a volunteer months ago. I wanted to give myself something to do on race day. I got picked to be a kayak volunteer.

Next on the agenda was lunch with a good friend. LaVonne and I have been friends since I was about 8 years old. She moved to Mesa about 7 years ago and I haven't seen her since. I was excited to meet her for lunch. I had so much fun laughing and hanging out with her. I can't believe I forgot to get a photo of us together. Next time!

We headed to Gilbert to change and to grab a quick 15 minute nap, then it was back to Tempe for dinner. This day happened to be Brandon's birthday, so we met up with his family for dinner at a nice Italian restaurant. It was cool that Brandon had so many family and friends to support him at his race. I, on the other hand, was all of Skyler's support. Hopefully I was able to fulfill the role successfully!



Coming up...race day!