The Road to Vineman

Bright and early Friday morning, we met up with Christy and husband, Louis. They are both awesome and super generous to take me up, especially, since I was not coming back with them as I was going to NYC again for work.

Of course on the 8hr journey up, we were hydrating like fools... therefore we stopped to pee like a million times. Once arriving to Sonoma, we met the team for a swim.. of course we were late because of all the traffic and pee stops, but non-the-less, we met up with the coaches just in time for them to tell us to do a quick 30min swim in the river before they took off. As we swam, Christy noticed Angela's arm was doing something wonky, its hard to explain, but her form was a little off. So she corrected it. So of course, I asked Christy to look at mine... and thankfully my form was great, but I was not "gliding" enough, therefore I was not efficient in the water. Taking this from Christy is a key note as she is one of the fastest swimmers on the team.. so as we continued on our swim I made not and glided more, with that i had to adjust my breathing, but i think i did it... YAY.. so with one more swim practice the next day, I was happy to see my form felt better and Christy noticed as well that it was on track.

So that night we had a team dinner and it was yummy.. pretty good Italian place. of course we were all pretty tired... and we all know I love my sleep and i hate snoring, so i was excited to fall asleep before Ashley and her boyfriend, Brad, arrived later that night.. i did not hear them come in, i did not hear them trip over bags, i did not hear doors closing.. but ya know what i did hear 2hr later, apparently just after they went to bed, Snoring. LOL. I swear a train could come roaring though my room and i would sleep soundly, tiny bit of snoring, while wearing ear plugs BTW.. i am wide awake.. it is baffling and so annoying for me and i am sure for them, too.. although all snorers swear they don't snore.

Saturday morning we all met for a mini Tri to the river for swim, then drove up to the high school for a quick bike ride to check all our gears and a mini run which i did not do because old Righty Tendi, but fun all the same... and then headed into the Race Meeting to hear about the course, get our BID Numbers and of course buy some swag. :-)

(here are pics from the morning swim... and did I mention we are famous Cancer Crusaders!?!? --that's right, these tough cookies were featured on the Ironman Website!!)

Cole, Tina, Me, Christy, Bobbi, Chloe, Brandi

GO TEAM!

Cancer Crusaders!!

Christy and Me

Me & Christy

The race meeting was great. Very informative and actually kinda funny as they showed people walking during the swim, as the water is so shallow.

As we gathered all our bib numbers and were set to head out to T2 to set up, i realized i had left my T2 bag at the hotel, but have no fear, I was able to go back and grab it, and then come back to set up. (This was actually a great learning tool as Vineman & Cozumel are set up the same with TWO Separate transition areas for the bike and the run (which is also why i wanted to do Vineman)) :-)...

Saturday night was our Inspiration Dinner.. to be honest, I was expecting a lot more bells and whistles and Rah Rahs... but it was good non-the-less. They told a few inspiring stories of participants and other and also announce the top fundraisers.. and... drum roll please... i was the #1 Fundraiser for SoCal!!! Wahoo! I think i only beat Lizette by $50, but i'll take it!! and over all I was #4 out of all the TNT fundraisers.. So, THANK YOU!!! you guys are the ones that really did all donating, I just was happy to be there to hear our hard work paid off.. THANK YOU!!

After dinner we had one final team meeting before we headed to bed... at 9:00! I know it seems super early, but given that we had to wake up at 3:30, 9:00 sounded late! :-) our meeting was inspiring as we have an honorary team member that gave sent us an inspirational letter, the IronTeam made GO TEAM poster for us and the coaches walked us through the morning to calm and restless nerves... and with that and one last GO TEAM, we were off to bed to dream of swimming, biking, running and vineyards.