The Life of Pizza John

It had been a while since I had seen my grandparents so I decided after Ironman Texas I would head up to Oklahoma for a few days.  We mostly just hung around their house and took the dog for walks, but it was nice catching up.  Grandpa also make all kinds of good food from biscuits and gravy to chicken n dumplings and even ribs!  It was a nice visit.

I tried going into this race with no expectations, but with lots of hard work, it's hard to not envision how you want the day to unfold.  With a finishing time of 10:47, it wasn't what I wanted (or expected), but since I took an hour of my previous Ironman PR, I guess I can't (or shouldn't) complain too much. I started the journey on Tuesday morning as I left my house at 2:30 to start the trek to The Woodlands, TX.  I prefer to drive in the morning before the sun comes up.  There are less cars on the road and I can pull onto the shoulder at anytime to drain my bladder without getting off the highway.  It's also a nice way to break up the driving since I stop and work along the way.  The drive took me a day and a half and I just cruised along, working at Panera during work hours. My friend Sue arrived the next morning so I picked her up from the airport and we checked into the host hotel. I had never stayed at a host hotel for a race, but it was awesome! ...

Having been injured and lacking training the last 6 weeks, I'm pretty happy about the results of this race.  I finished in 4:36:56.  That is more than 12 minutes off my time from last year and more than 23 minutes off my time from three years ago.  Taking 12 minutes off a race in one year shows me how consistent training pays off. I had taped up the arch of my foot for support the morning of the race and hoped the tape would stay on through the swim so I didn't have to re-tape in T2.  I lucked out and the tape held!  I can't wait to be through these foot issues so I don't have to worry about this anymore. The Swim I did not really enjoy this swim in previous years, but this time it went really smooth.  There were more weeds in the water this year, but it didn't really bother me.  I was at the front line when the gun went off and I expected a mad house of swimmers jockeying for position, but it wasn't like that at all!  It was a smooth start ...

I had an awesome PR at this race, but I'm not sure I would do it again.  Between lack of aid stations and bumpy roads, it really made for an interesting day. Packet pickup, bike dropoff and checkin were Saturday, the day before the race.  The packet pickup was unorganized and the volunteers didn't seem too excited to be there.  There was no flow to the way it was setup and if you didn't know what to look for you would have missed your opportunity to pick up your ticket to return to the Kennedy Space Center and the hat they were giving away.  The bike racks were organized by number, but you had to get there early if you wanted an end spot.  I got there pretty late so I was not on the end.  I should have brought something to cover my bike with because it was all wet in the morning. We ate dinner at Mamma Rosas, an Italian place in Titusville.  The food was pretty good, but the Tiramisu was not. I would go there again, but next time skip dessert....

I'd rather make this post about the pictures so here is the synopsis... Surf: Too big in lots of places.  We headed to the Algarve in search of manageable waves.  We ended up finding lots of fun waves, but I prefer reef breaks and we mostly surfed beach breaks. Weather: Colder than I expected.  In the water I wore a 4/3 and was almost always cold.  Out of the water, I usually wore pants and a light jacket and was usually cold. Food:  Mediocre.  Maybe it was the small towns we were visiting, but I was not impressed.  The bread and cheese was pretty good (and pastries), but overall I was expecting more. Coffee: Excellent.  Not sure how it is spelled in Portuguese, but the Med Lite was awesome!  I would almost go back just for the coffee! People:  Locals didn't seem very friendly.  They were not mean, but they seemed very closed off.  All the tourists we met were very nice!  Hans and Frans from Germany we...