Cedar Point Pre-Race

This trip was a long time coming, and the pre-race, race, and recovery times are so long I want to split it into separate posts.  I'm still barely mentally capable of forming complete sentences, so this might be disjointed and full of uncaptioned pictures. Race week was nice and relaxing. I only swam/bike/run once each and was done by Wednesday morning. So the hay was in the barn, as the saying goes.  Thursday night I had a dad's meeting about an upcoming Indian Princess camp, then on Friday morning Kelley and I hit the road for Ohio.

We took I-77 all the way up through Virginia, West Virginia, then Ohio until we had to turn west just before Cleveland. There was some cool sights along the way going across the mountains.

The capital building in Charleston, WV

Selfie in the car

The Ohio River crossing from WV into OH

Welcome to Ohio!

By the time we turned left and made it into Sandusky, there was an unbelievable thunderstorm going on. You could see lightning in the clouds way off in the distance, and by the time we drove into the storm, it was constantly insane. One of the more difficult storms I've ever had to drive through, compounded by putting it at the end of the 10 hour drive.

Saturday was purely a social day. In the morning it was cloudy and cool, so Kelley and I decided to walk around downtown Sandusky some!

Courthouse building in Sandusky

The Carousel Museum was really cool! They had a woodcarving show going on inside as well.

Woodcarving into a moose antler. Not something we see in the Carolinas.

Kelley in a back alley

Unbelievably cool brickwork! This small scale doesn't show how truly incredible this wall was.

We found a classic car show going on ! This is a 1947 Rolls Royce

Kelley fell in love with this 1936 Cord car (below too). I think this logo would make a cool tattoo.

We got our picture taken under a Buckeye tree in the Buckeye state!

For some reason, we find ourselves in the middle of classic car shows way too often. Not sure how that works out, but it's always cool! Then we headed out to the race site for the checkin and packet pickup.

Cedar Point parking lot was the host location

First look at the roller coasters and Lake Erie/Sandusky Bay

Closer shot of some of the roller coasters

Lake Erie! The great lakes are creepy. It looks like an ocean, but it's fresh water and in the middle of the country.

Finish Strong making a presence at Revolution3 site!

The midwestern seagulls are huge. Seriously some of the largest birds I've seen on a beach.

I love Rev3's personalized TA setups!

Roberta is on the rack and ready to ride

Can you tell I was one of the first people at the bike checkin?

After the packet pickup and bike checkin, we sat through the athlete meeting. It was actually very interesting! Those things tend to be boring and repetitive after you've done a few dozen triathlons, but the Rev3 race director was very entertaining and put lots of great information out there.

Kelley had never seen any of the Great Lakes before. I had only seen Lake Michigan a couple of times in 2003 when I was in Wisconsin on a work trip. This time, seeing Lake Erie as an athlete it was a completely different experience.  Stop messing with my mind, midwest! I know a freaking ocean when I see one. There was waves and sandy beaches, everything you should have for an ocean swim. Only the water was fresh - not salty - and there was Canada on the other side, not Africa or Europe.  It did mess with my brain a bit.

First time sticking our feet in Lake Erie!

Check out that chop! Not good for swim racing.

Kelley with the roller coasters in the background

I love this shot. Her hair blew over my shoulder.

The beach, swim finish, and the roller coasters. The swim start is way in the background there too.

Both of us with the Big R3 in transition.

After we finished all of the onsite goodness, it was time to head out for a late lunch. We found a good restaurant to hang out at. There was all kinds of off-track horse betting and crap, but it was pretty good food too.

Me and Alisa Dixon!

The highlight of the day - no doubt - was getting to hang out with Alisa Dixon. When we were in college together, she was Lisa Trotter, but now she's married with a couple of kids and lives in Columbus. Getting to see her at all was a real treat. It's been almost 20 years! She drove almost 2 hours with her husband and oldest kid just to hang out for a few hours with me and Kelley. We were really close back then, and it was good to catch up, reminisce about old times and how far we've grown as people, parents, and adults. That really meant a lot to me, that she was willing to go to such lengths just to see an old friend. I'm really hoping we can meet up again at an ASU football game or something else this fall. Her husband is an Ohio State grad, so he needs to appreciate the beauty of small town mountain college football.

After dinner it was time to relax for a bit, watch some college football, and get to bed early. Race day started at 5:15 am! Of course I didn't really sleep too well knowing what was ahead of me.....