Lonestar weekend

Jeff and I had planned to sleep in and leave for Galveston around 10:30 on Friday morning. Instead, I woke up at 4 am and just couldn’t sleep anymore, finished up last minute packing and we were on the road by 8:30. We stopped and had lunch with Cherie and Cody in Houston, I can’t believe I hadn’t seen Cherie in over a year! It was great to catch up and finally meet Cody who is already 1! Just sorry we didn’t get to see Cullen too.

On to Galveston and checking in to the house- not bad, the neighbors looked pretty sketchy, but otherwise decent. The sleeping arrangements would definitely be college dormy (Nicki ended up sleeping in the hallway!), but we pretty much knew that going in. Phil (Red’s husband) started calling it the Big Brother House.

Our home for the weekend

Julie got to the house first and we headed over to the expo and packet pickup early. On the way over we looked at the ocean and there was some pretty serious wave action for Galveston, I told Jeff & Julie “wouldn’t it be horrible if someone got here and didn’t realize we’re swimming in the bay not the ocean and thought they had to swim in that!” At the expo, I didn’t have to wait in line at all since it was only 3pm and most people doing the half were coming in after work on Friday. While we were on our way back from Moody Gardens, Julie got a text from Red “OMG look at the water!! Do we really have to swim in THAT??” Julie decided to have some fun with Red and called her and said “you didn’t know that’s what it would be like? Well don’t worry, it’s calmer in the early morning so as long as you’re in an early swim wave (knowing Red was in the LAST wave) it won’t be too bad” Poor Red was NOT happy, and finally I told her she was looking at the ocean and we would be swimming in the bay and it’s much calmer. Red replied “you guys SUCK!”

Galveston waves, the pictures doesn't do it justice

Jeff and I made pre-race dinner while Sandra, Kendra, Julie and Red went to Moody Gardens for packet pickup and pre-race meeting. We had fish tacos, rice, fruit salad, watermelon, and wine. Thanks to everyone who brought stuff, helped out, or otherwise contributed. I really enjoyed pre-race dinner, it was so much fun to hang out and talk with everyone and I’m so glad we invited others who weren’t staying at the house, Kim, Eva, Stacey and Coach Jen came to dinner Friday. As usual, I meant to take some pictures during pre-race dinner and I completely forgot both nights.

Since I forgot to take pictures a generic picture of our dining room will have to do, imagine it with 6 more chairs squished around the table and 12 people all talking, laughing and eating, and bikes lining every wall.

After getting up at 4am, I slept really well on Friday night, but when I got up, I found out that there were loud drunk people (there was a bar ½ a block down from the house) and sirens just outside the house and super strong loud wind and storms all night long and I didn’t hear any of it. While I was eating breakfast Del texted me “OMG look at the water” I thought really?? Then he texted “there’s talk of canceling the swim” Wow! I wasn’t expecting that!! So Jeff, Red, and I decided to head to Moody Gardens in case Eva, Sandra, Kendra, and Julie needed moral or logistical support. They canceled the swims and did a bike run instead. All of our Saturday Tri Zones racers did awesome and seemed to take the race changes well. We hung out with Houston Racing to spectate all morning and I got to catch up with Ingrid, Kim, Del and Richard. I also got to meet Ron who saved my team for the Champions Tri relay when I got sick- thanks again Ron!

In the afternoon, Red, Stacey, Andrew and I did a short bike, checked our bikes in, ran a few minutes then tried to swim. We went to the swim start only to find they had removed the ladders to get out of the water at the docks. We could jump in but we didn’t want to walk to shore over the oyster beds and risk cutting our feet. So we walked over to the swim exit and swam there instead. We also tried to exchange our race shirts- no dice. They are really cute shirts, but super tiny. Julie ended up exchanging mine for a men’s small while I was racing- thanks Julie. All of this wouldn’t be a big deal except it meant we didn’t stay off our feet at all the day before the race.

Jeff and Phil went fishing while we were swimming, biking, running, etc. I had told Phil how much I love fresh fish so he grilled up a small saltwater trout just for me as an addition to my pre-race dinner to “help me be one with the ocean tomorrow” thanks Phil!

Jeff caught at least one fish

When we got back to the house, Jeff, Sandra, Kendra and Julie had started dinner which was awesome. I only had to do a few things. We had chicken avocado salad- my favorite!, roasted potatoes (Andrew & Sarah’s kids called them “little French fries”) spinach salad from Stacey’s garden which was awesome! More watermelon and more wine- thanks Coach Jen! Again it was so much fun to relax and hang out with everyone and get final pre-race advice from Coach Jen.

I was all packed for the morning and got to bed early and fell asleep no problem. But then about 2 hours later I woke up with a headache to loud drunk people yelling in the alley outside our window. I must have gotten up at least 4 times to make sure our cars weren’t being stolen. The sirens were pretty annoying too, I found out later there is an EMS station just around the corner from the house. At 2:30 I got up and took some Excedrin because I really didn’t want to have a headache for the race. Excedrin has caffeine, so I was wide awake after that just counting the minutes until 4 when I could get up. At 4, I threw on my race clothes and ran downstairs super excited for the race. No one else shared my excitement until after they had their coffee.

Race report is a separate entry

Phil and Red post race having oysters and beer at Fishtales

Post race we went to Fishtales and had lots of food and drinks with Ingrid, Julie, Del, Nicki, Drew, Scott, Phil, and Red. Red, Julie and I stayed up until 11pm, is that even possible after a half ironman?!?! And I slept like a rock even though there was apparently lots of “activity” in the alley behind the house again. Monday we leisurely packed up and even went down to the beach with Andrew, Sarah and the kids for awhile before heading home.

The house had it’s advantages and disadvantages but I had a great time hanging out with everyone and I don’t think I have laughed so much in ages! Thanks to everyone for making it such a fun weekend in Galveston!