After returning, I got my morning meal in and prepared myself for The Underpants Run. This is a charity event that is often put on before different Ironman races. It was only a 1.5 mile distance. I had a 15 minute run on my schedule anyway, so looked like something fun to do that day. So, Kristen, Ben, Kathy, and I met in the lobby and walked over. Rick met us there as he decided to do the practice swim after we went on our bike ride.
Rick and I striking a pose before the race started.
The race start!
Random participants at the event. Loving the guy in the pink undies! LOL!
The "race" finish line!
Our group, Kathy actually came up with the idea of going as Captain Underpants and made the capes for us. Kristen, Ben, and I , however decided to forgo the tightie whities for other undies...
After the run, it was back to the rooms to get all of our gear bags ready to go and to get our bikes over to the transition area. Before an Ironman you have to check your bike in the day before, it is not an option to do it race morning.
I lucked out and my bike was in the first 3 rows as you came in the transition. Made it alot easier to find my bike on race day. As you can see, unlike shorter distance tris, you do not have an actual transition area to put your stuff down. Instead you are given gear bags; i.e. swim, bike, run, special needs, and morning clothes bags. Each bag has everything in it that you will need for that transition and they are placed at various spots along the course.
The bags for the swim to bike transition and for the bike to run transition were both kept at the bike transition area. You also have two special needs bags, one for the run course and one for the bike. These are placed at about the halfway point and you can put things in these bags that you might need along the course, i.e. nutrition, extra clothes, etc. I dropped all of mine off on this day, although you can actually keep these until race morning and drop them off at that time as well.
As I was wondering around the transition area and trying to familiarize myself, I ran into a few friends!
Christy and I in front of our bikes!
Catherine, proud to wear her volunteer shirt!
Deanne, hard at work also volunteering. Cool side story here, the girl she is talking to in blue was a first time IMer. They chatted for a bit and Deanne actually saw her several times on course and was also there at the finish when she crossed the line! How cool is that!
After transition, my mom, my aunt Debbie, and I got in the car and drove most of the run course. We went as far as Churchill Downs and had to get out for a picture...
After our car trip we headed back to the hotel for a quick shower and then to an early dinner, again at Mozz. Fairly uneventful evening except that my mom caught the paper in the breadbasket on fire from a candle on the table. My aunt and I inadvertenly made it worse by trying to blow it out, thus making it more of a torch. My mom quickly grabbed the torch and was smart enough to douse it in her water glass to put it out. Unfortunately my dad somehow got all wet in the process and we had ashes all over the table. Luckily though that was the only damage, though. Still not clear how none of the staff saw this happen or offered to help with the fire, LOL!
Early to bed this night, I believe my clock said 8:30pm as I hopped into bed. Early morning wake up call for the race the next day...
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