We are Ironmen!!

We still can't believe it but it's over and we are now Ironmen! We haven't been able to sit down and really think about what all we did, it's been so busy since the Ironman. The day after the race we went into work (only for a short time) then left the following day for California for Craig's brothers wedding. It was a busy week but we really enjoyed being a part of the wedding and visiting with family. Once we got back it's been busy as always at work so that's why the update is coming so late.
So, here's how it all went down. Craig's sister came out a couple of days prior to the race and we are so thankful she was out here with us, she really helped out and was a huge support for both of us. We were supposed to register by Friday at the latest, you're supposed to register two days prior to pick up all your materials and get all the required information. Craig was added on to an exercise at the last minute that lasted from 4am on Friday until 8pm that night so we were pretty worried that he would be unable to register. Carla and I went to Coeur d'Alene after I got done with work on Friday and explained the situation....everyone was so helpful and allowed Craig to come by on Saturday and do his registration. So after a bit of a scare everything was coming together. Saturday he registered and we drove the bike course to get an idea of what we were up against....A LOT OF HILLS!
Sunday morning began at 3:30am, after some breakfast and one last check we were driving out to Coeur d'Alene. We got there just around 5am and began the process of checking over our bikes, all of our gear, nutrition, getting numbered, etc. Craig had a little scare at first because he lost a screw on his bike tube so the tire would not stay inflated. After some help from the bike mechanics that were available he got a new tube and we were getting our wetsuits on. At 7am the swim began and it was insane....2,000 people all starting on the beach, there were people everywhere. We started next to each other but then never saw each other after the first minute in the swim. Both our swims went well, Craig finished in 1hr 15min and I was done in 1hr 28min. After our transition we were on the bikes...Craig was awesome on the bike, he was up in what he said was the good athlete pack. He later said that he was looking around and kept thinking "these guys are in a lot better shape then me!" He finished his bike ride in 6hrs 6min with a minor glitch at the end. The last 20 miles he began to feel pretty upset and with the last 5-10 miles to go he threw up. Once that happened it was downhill from there for him. Along the run his legs and body felt great but his stomach was feeling awful. He could not keep any fluids or food down, he tried everything they had at each aid station and nothing stayed down. During this whole time I was dying on the bike, my first loop was great but then the hills really got to me and I had a much slower second lap. I finished the bike in 7hrs 22min and couldn't wait to be off that bike!! I started my run and like Craig my stomach wasn't feeling great either but nowhere near as bad as him...I was able to keep foods and liquids down but after 12 hours of non stop go your stomach just doesn't want to eat the power bars, GUs or gatorade. My legs were so tight that I had to do a walk/trot the whole time. I'd been having problems with my right achilles tendon for a few months prior so I expected it to be a little sore and problematic, which it was...but mainly my legs were just dead from the bike.
I saw Craig three times during the run, we passed each other going opposite directions and the last time I saw him he said he may need an IV because he could tell he was getting very dehydrated due to nothing staying down. He mostly walked and jogged just a bit for the remainder of the marathon and finished the run in 5hrs 40min....almost two hours slower than his last marathon! But he finished the entire race in 13hrs 13min 22sec!! He ended up going to the medical tent right after the finish line and after trying a few things they gave him three bags of IV!! During this time I was finishing up my run, so sore and miserable! I finished the run in 6hrs 6min...almost two hours slower than my last marathon! My overall time was 15hrs 15min 40sec...the finish was amazing, people lined up down the street cheering you on even at 10pm, it was incredible!!
Craig is feeling much better now, he was real sick almost the whole time we were in Santa Barbara for the wedding but he's doing much better now. We took a whole two weeks off since the race and went on our first jog today. The whole experience was amazing, the training leading up to the race and the race itself was incredible! While we both had a rough time, Craig being sick and my legs making the run awful we both agree it was still a great experience overall! So much so we actually signed up for next year! So, maybe in a few months we'll start up another blog and let you know how are second crazy attempt goes!
We've attached a few pictures from the Ironman, the one of both of us is just before we made our way down to the beach for the start. The video that's attached is of my finish, we have a video of Craig's finish but it's on our other camera and we can't get it uploaded yet. Enjoy the pictures!
We want to thank everyone that has e-mailed, called, posted comments and given us support and encouragement. We really appreciate everyones support and it definitely helped us along the way, thank you!!

Final Update

First of all, sorry for the lack of updates...we weren't able to access our blog while we were deployed and once we got back it's been super busy with training and work. We're two days away from the Ironman, yikes! Craig's sister, Carla, just arrived yesterday...she's going to be our moral support and our ride home when we can't walk Sunday night after all the activities!



Our deployment went well, it actually flew by. When we weren't busy flying we were training almost all the time and we even knocked out a masters class while we were out there as well. It was the quickest deployment yet! We got a lot of training accomplished while we were out there though, unfortunately no swimming. We had to improvise and do a lot of core training and light lifting to try and compensate for the lack of swimming. While we were deployed our wing commander got word of what we were doing and thought it'd be a great article for public affairs. Just near the end of the deployment we got an interview with lots of pictures, the article ended up coming out and making it's way around the base and back home very quickly. The two pictures of us in our PT gear at Manas are from the interview, don't be fooled by the green woods like look in the running picture....that was a very tiny area and the rest of the base doesn't look like that! The picture of us on the bikes is just outside my building and when Craig and I had the same time off we'd bring our bikes outside so we could bike together and not be stuck in our rooms biking...very boring after two months! If you haven't seen it yet, here's the link to the article that was written: http://www.manas.afnews.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123097583

Once we got back from Kyrgyzstan it was lots of biking and swimming to try and make up for the lack of hills on the bike and no swimming. We had our first try of our wet suits a couple weeks ago and the water was freezing!!! We swam in a smaller lake nearby and the water was 58.5, brrr! Unfortunately, Lake Coeur d'alene is a lot bigger body of water and a whole lot colder...it doesn't help that we had SNOW June 10th...insane!!! We have a neoprene hoodie and boots though that was just authorized for participants to wear because the water is going to be so cold. The third picture is Craig getting our bikes together two weekends ago during one of our last long swim, bike, run sessions out at the lake nearby our house.

We are super excited about this Sunday, we'll try and update everyone after we crawl across the finish line, hahaha! We'll be heading out to Santa Barbara, CA two days after the Ironman for Doug and Jill's wedding...the plane ride may be a little uncomfortable that quickly after all day Sunday but we're really excited. So look for an update shortly after we get back from the wedding and hopefully we'll have some pictures to send out to everyone as well.

It's been awhile!!

Well, as you can see it's been quite some time since we've last updated our training. Don't worry, we've still been training!! Craig has been doing really great, I had a little bit of a slip up. I've been having some problems with my reoccurring foot problem so I did more cross training for awhile until I saw a doctor. I've got some new inserts and the last few runs have seemed to be going well so I think I'm back!
Overall, Craig has been doing great training. He's been in New Jersey at Fort Dix for the past week and a half and managed to get in a lot of workouts between studying, class, and visiting with friends. We've both been pretty tired lately with the training, up until last week it was a lot of base building, nothing too tough or too long throughout the week. These past two weeks though have been up to 10-13 hour training weeks so it's really starting to add up now.
I'll be deploying in a few days on Monday so we probably won't be able to update the blog for awhile, I don't think we'll have access to the site while we're out at Manas but keep checking back, we may be able to. Craig will try and get one last training update written before he leaves at the end of the month. It'll hopefully be a great time training while we're at Manas, we won't be able to swim at all but we just bought some cases to bring our bike and trainer out so that we can do all our bike workouts in our room on our tri bikes as opposed to the stationary bikes there.
Other than that, not a whole lot going on new. We've been really busy at work and starting our first Masters class (hence the lack of postings) but we're trudging along with the training. It's finally started to warm up around here enough to run outside without the feet of snow in the way, which is nice! We hope things are going great with everyone and we'll keep you updated on our training....and if anyone wants to plan a early summer get away to Spokane around June 22nd we'd love to have some support out here for the Ironman, haha!

A Whole Lot of Skiing

The last eight days have been full of skiing! We had a squadron ski day on Friday and headed up to 49 degrees North for a day of skiing in some great snow. The following morning we left for Steamboat Springs, Colorado for a week of skiing with Craig's family. We got in around noon and we were on the slopes by 3pm (a little late because our skis didn't quite make it until later that night). After our first day of incredible powder, we skied another six days in amazing conditions! It was super cold most of the days but the snow couldn't have been better!!
We brought our workout clothes to go running but the skiing was so great that we stayed out until the last lift and ended up getting back to the condo by around 5pm. After six days of this we figured we got quite a leg/cardio workout so we weren't too upset about missing our run/bike/swim training. Now that we're back home though we got on the bike today and biked for just over an hour....we realized how tired our legs were from skiing, we couldn't bike much longer.
We had a great time in Colorado visiting Craig's family, my brother, and my sponsor mom Jane...it was a great vacation. Now that we're back home it's back to the training. We'll keep you updated!