Soma Epic Weekend

Disclaimer- I am too tired to hyperlink all the bloggers mentioned or alluded to in this report. I do not do their deeds justice in this post nor can I truly explain the magnitude at which I appreciated being apart of special weekend.

Wow!

Talk about a gangbuster fast weekend of blogger-centric activity. I most certainly will not be able to condense everything into a cogent post and really my contribution was minimal considering I did not have a bib number.

Bolder and I again slit our fingers and mashed them together in blood-brotherhood and swore oaths to meet for race weekend once per year. That may also have been spilled our beer and cursed like sailors, but you get the point. Bold stayed with me at Casa del Comm's while Mistress and Mo were in Seattle. I could not promise turn down service or home cooked meals but he got excellent sleep every night and a personal chauffeur at his beck and call. I can do no more.

As Nytro so eloquently pointed out at lunch during the expo, the only places I eat with her and Ben are Olive Garden and Monti's (a rustic restaurant directly across the finish line of Soma and IMAZ) Rainbow and Hubby could only claim Monti's with me, so Nytro felt superior. Which isn't surprising.

I finally met Stronger. Reaching out to finally touch someone in person that has touched me so much as a person, I admit got me teary eyed. I may in future references blame horseradish for the redness in my eyes. But nevertheless I could have done nothing else the whole weekend and meeting her made it complete.

Of course my email training partner, MoMo was there all the time (we keep emailing schedules and have yet to ride together), 21st Century Mom whom is as sweet a person IRL as online, thank you for the gifts. The Dread Pirate, AAAARRRR she was ruckus woman. There will be much said regarding her race and I give her high praise for never speaking a disparaging word about it. Un-pirate like to not blame 'The Man' but she showed me once again the triathlon spirit that an indomitable attitude is more important at a triathlon than a great race.

Oh geesh, so many people at a 25 person dinner that its hard to give proper dues. But at least thanks Brian and the New Mexico Outlaws for allowing me to attend the dinner. I sat at a table with great minds and easy smiles. It was a bit overwhelming to maintain so many threads of conversations, I wanted to be a part of them all and not miss anything.

The Race. How did my race day go when I wasn't racing? Well being Bolder's personal driver is a big responsibility. I woke at 0220, unable to sleep so I hopped on my trainer until 0400 when my alarm when off. Pre Race was great, I did not see much of the out of towners except Bold so we stayed with AZTRICLUB members. We're not hard to see, racers and supporters alike in our bright orange shirts.

I jumped in and volunteered a couple hours stripping wet suits. Fun. Drank some beers. Then when Big John came out of T2, I went out to pace him for his first half of the 13.1 mile run. At three miles, we ran into Duane and I decided to walk the remainder of his quarter man 10k with him as he was starting to be affected greatly by the weather. It hit 100 degrees out there during the race. Duane and I did not get a chance to talk much at the dinner and I felt badly about that. Maybe God had put him and I out there together on the run course together so we could spend the time together that I wanted the night before. I was compelled to push John forward and stay with Duane.

Duane got so much praise and support from fellow competitors out there. It was affirming of the human spirit and humbling. His mouth, all our mouths, were so dry that he simply could not respond to every person who spoke to him or touched him when they ran by in support of his efforts.

In all I spent two hours and seventeen minutes on the run course, running up and down, walking with and talking to important people who needed encouragement or a side-five. Doing that while first pacing John then pacing Duane really made me feel like a better person than just being a spectator.

The AZTRICLUB tent was a hub of activity. This time we had three 10x10 tents for shade with 5 cases of beer, 6 bottles of champagne, water and Gatorade, muffins, danishes, homemade burritos, German chocolate cake, bagels, fruit and chips. The team probably handed out a case of beer and couple dozen small glasses of champagne to friends and fellow athletes who felt obliged. We may not be the fast tri club in the city, but everyone knows we do it up at races.

While Soma is the end of most peoples seasons, Florida Ironman and Silverman not withstanding, my season is soon about to begin.

Let's have fun....