Ironman Mont Tremblant: Pre race

Oh man my thoughts are such a jumbled mess right now I can't even. Just going to start typing here and see what comes out. First things first, I AM AN IRONMAN now, so spoiler alert if you haven't been following along on my instagram, it was kind of the most awesome race ever and now I'm going to write about 30,000 words about it. Figured I'd sprew out some pre-race stuff while we wait for the official race pictures to show up. Also writing this is far preferable to unpacking my bags full of what I'm sure is now super gross and disgusting gear.

The week of the race I was a bit of a mess. I mean I was holding it together, but man my stress levels were just insane. Fortunately it was all kind of in waves. Monday I was starting to see friends post on instagram about already being in Tremblant and that was stressing me out a bit (OMG am I late? Should I be there already?!!), plus trying to organize all my gear and junk and worrying about forgetting something important. And what if the AirBnb was a huge scam? And why is my back hurting? What's going on with my shoulder?! Aiiiiiieeeeeeee.

Tuesday night (I think it was Tuesday?!) I was able to get in a short but very calming open water swim with Amy. Plus get everything packed up and ready to leave on Wednesday, and just being able to organize everything into bags and bins and check off the lists helped me settle my nerves down a lot.

Wednesday morning a short run, then we packed up the car and the kids and headed for Ottawa, where we had decided to spend the night to split the drive a bit and also to visit my brother in law and his wife. Plus my kids had never seen the parliament buildings before, so that seemed like something we should do. Getting on the road felt really good, even if the drive was exceedingly boring. Even the momentary sight of the Big Apple wasn't enough distraction.

I thought 'spot the triathlete' would be a good game to play on the way, but alas this was the only obvious one we saw.

We had a nice night in Ottawa (ate dinner at a really good pizza place in the Byward Market), but my shoulder was still bothering me and even though we did pretty minimal walking around my shin started to feel achy too, which was a real concern. The shin pain is tied in to the pinched nerve in my back and my physio had done so much work to eliminate it (successfully!) that having it come back was really demoralizing. But there wasn't much I could do about it other than my physio stretches and getting into the trigger points with my foam roller and spikey ball o' pain, which naturally I had brought with me. Always fun to do those on the floor of a hotel room!

Thursday we headed out with a stop at one of my husband's favourite craft breweries (seemed like the least I could do, what with the whole rest of the trip being ALL ABOUT ME). Then we crossed the border into Quebec where I immediately got chills.

yep really going to do this

It was such a beautiful drive to Tremblant. I can't imagine how stunning it would be to do it in the fall! Soon enough we arrived in town and since we were a little early to check in to the AirBnB, we hunted up some poutine for the kids. Yeah, for the kids. Let's go with that.

I was later told by someone that this place is the best poutine in Tremblant, so go us for stumbling onto it largely because there was parking available.

The it was off to the resort area to check in to the Ironman, which I completely neglected to take any pictures of because I was so freaked out by the whole process (they weigh you? why do they weigh you??!).

The orange band is for first timers. Really cool way to kind of recognize each other and exchange nervous smiles

Then we checked into the AirBnb condo, which was both not a scam and also completely freaking gorgeous. It was so spacious and well appointed and just absolutely perfect for us.

Just so lovely. I can imagine being here in the winter with the fire going, it must be a dream.

Oh just a whole separate master suite up there with ensuite bathroom and king size bed. No biggie. (I would later have reason to regret those stairs, but still, SO NICE)

After getting groceries and settled, the littler kid and I walked back down to the village because I was super antsy and needed to do something. It was nice to spend a little time with her. And, of course, take some very important pictures:

You aren't really in Tremblant until a deer nonchalantly walks out of the woods next to you and is like, yo what's up. Then it started peeing, which my 9 year old thought was the funniest thing that had ever happened in the history of ever.

aaaaahhhhhhhhh

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

The good news was at some point on Thursday the weird shoulder thing cleared up and I was feeling fine there. The bad news was my shin was still bothering me, which was not helping with the nerves at all. I just had no idea how it was going to react to running, and tried to keep the walking minimal and very easy. Plus more time with the foam roller.

Friday back to the village to poke around the expo and the merchandise, and watch the littler kid run in the kid's race. She was pretty mad at me that I signed her up for the 1k and not the 5k! 

Obligatory I'm on the list shot

It sort of poured rain off and on so after her race we headed back to the condo to wait for my parents to arrive (which was of key importance because yay I love my parents but also they were bringing my bike and maybe don't ask if I was more excited to see them or my bike...). And I tried to figure out what would be a good time to go get in a short swim by the swim start based on weather radar and the availability of Fab because we've done all the rest of the training together, naturally we'd go together to get in the last swim!

Swim training area. I have an annotated version of this that refuses to load, but just behind the volleyball net post is Lionel Sanders heading in to do a training swim. Pros: Just like us! But way faster! And accompanied in this case by his own personal videographer. 

We got our swim in, which helped me relax a lot, then I walked back to the condo with my wetsuit only half stripped because it had started pouring rain again and really, what would be the point of changing? I got some weird looks walking back through the village, but I think the athletes understood.

Oh you don't wear your wetsuit walking around in the rain? Why ever not?

In the evening I left the family to dinner while I went (late) to the banquet because the athlete briefing was right after. Managed to get some food which I was far too nervous to really taste, but I think it was ok? Then the briefing which didn't really say anything I didn't already know, other than some info about the no passing zone on Duplessis that was quite useful just to understand what the signs would look like. 

Massive tent waiting for the briefing. The apple crumble bars they'd put out on the tables for dessert were pretty good. I may have been having trouble eating due to nerves but I will always make room for dessert.

Fab and I decided to meet up around 8 Saturday morning for a short bike ride just to make sure everything was mechanically in order, and I made the decision to skip the short run I'd planned for after the bike because I just didn't want to risk doing anything to my shin, which was still aching. The way I figured it, if I had a limited number of kilometers in that leg, I didn't want to waste them on Saturday when I'd need them on Sunday!

one more post ride selfie. I'm not sure either of us really pulls these off successfully

Then it was time to prep the bags, take the bike to transition, and meet up with the Burlington group of triathletes for a photo. It was nice to have stuff to do to take my mind off the whole holy crap you are doing an Ironman tomorrow thing!

Bad Wolf all ready to go

Oh god don't forget anything. Please don't forget anything. It's so complicated!

Hydrate, relax.

Transition! The venue for this race is seriously just so freaking beautiful.

My helpers bringing my bags for me

Try not to get into any trouble, Bad Wolf

So many gear bags

Nancy and I freaking out about how we actually HAVE TO DO THIS now. Note: people had so much trouble recognizing me because I had my hair down. My tri friends never see me with anything other than a ponytail!

Photo op with the birthday boy. 

So, this group photo was special. Jeff should have been at Tremblant racing. Everyone who knew him gathered to take a picture together, including the trio racing the relay in his honour. He touched a lot of lives and it was nice to get everyone together in his memory.

A member of the group had temporary tattoos made up for us, which I put on my forearms where I could see them on the bike. Jeff was always such an avid cyclist that it seemed appropriate to make sure I would think of him during that stage of the race.

Then it was back to the condo to relax by the pool and attempt to keep from jumping right out of my skin. My parents made dinner for us, which kept me off my feet and I greatly appreciated (honestly having them along to keep an eye on the kids and deal with a lot of the cooking was such a gift and I'm so grateful they were there).

Sunset from the condo. Go to bed, soon to be Ironmen.

Time for bed, to try and get a few hours sleep before the big day. I settled in and tried not to think about my shin (still aching) and what might happen with that, because it's not like I could do anything about it. I wasn't worried at all about the swim and the bike, but oh boy, the run was scaring me. Somehow, I did manage to drop off to sleep for a few hours, then tossed and turned until the alarm was about to go off at 4:40am.

Next up: The swim!