HELLO WISCONSIN!!

Today has been crazy! GOOD crazy!

I departed from my hotel room in South Bend at 9 am to try to avoid Chicago traffic. Didn't work as well as I'd hoped but I managed to get through Chicago without any problems other than some slow traffic. I determined that my time of arrival in Madison would be about 12:30, which was wayyy too early to check into my hotel, so I headed straight down to Monona Terrace, found a parking garage, and registered for Ironman #3! Monona Terrace is really cool.. it's a HUGE convention center right on the lake, across from the capitol building!

Then, I figured I should do my workouts while I was in the area, so I went back to my car to get my stuff. Unfortunately, my swimsuit, wetsuit, sneakers, and running clothes were buried in my suitcase, so I got my HUGE suitcase out of my car, set it on the ground and dug through it in the middle of the parking garage. After getting everything, I headed down to the beachfront and hopped in the water. The water temperature was good but it was pretty choppy, and there was a lot of seaweed. I started swimming towards a buoy, but once I got out a ways, I couldn't see the buoy anymore. I turned around and swam to another buoy, but then I started panicking a bit because it was choppy, I couldn't see where to swim, there was barely anyone else swimming, and I kept imagining that one of the alleged giant black snakes of Lake Monona was swimming around me. I ended up swimming back to the shore and getting out.. after 6 minutes and 47 seconds. After calming myself down, I went back out for round 2. For some reason, the lake really creeped me out. I think I swam 15 minutes total. Not great, but at least it was something. Then I went for a 30 min easy run.

So, the freakout wasn't great, but I powered through it.

I also got a glimpse of.. THE HELIX!!!

Now I'm at my hotel room, ordered some food, and am watching bad TV with my compression socks on and my legs up. Also I am trying to get some of my stuff organized for the next few days. Tomorrow, I am heading into town in the morning to pick up my race wheels, do a quick ride on my bike and a quick dip in the lake. Then I am meeting a creepy internet friend, Laurie, at 3:30 to drive the course and then hit the athlete dinner!