Ironman Maryland always ends up being a great little getaway for Jeremy and I. Besides the race, it's just a quiet weekend spent in quaint picturesque towns. This year we found an Airbnb in Oxford. I think the town is only a mile long, tops. It's tiny. However, it was really pleasant. One night we just walked through town and sat on the shore watching the sunset. The colors of that sunset were beautiful!
Another day we went shopping at a little boutique and antique store where we found the coolest old medical book. We met some locals and ate some delicious ice-cream at Highland Creamery. I may need a refresher course, but there's a chance it was creamier than Aggie ice-cream! (I can't believe I admitted that.) Just hanging out down by the ferry. We tried looking for sea glass but the tide was too high to find anything.
Pics for the kids at home.
The race had a different vibe this year for us. Jeremy wasn't as trained as he likes to be because of Nice, and it changed how we approached this race. There wasn't the stress to get that Kona slot, but we still hoped he would have a good race.
Checking in down at the village.
I have a couple favorite pictures of Jeremy and I from this weekend, but I think this one is just fabulous.
One thing we noticed as we were hanging out down by the docks were the jellyfish! We had heard rumors of jellyfish in past years but they haven't shown up in a really long time. This year they were out in force. Really there wasn't more than a foot or two between them all, and they were anywhere from two to four feet long. Now the butterflies started setting in for Jer. We touched the tops of their heads and found they were surprisingly solid. I wasn't about the touch their tentacles. I've watched enough Finding Nemo to know that!
At gear check-in the athletes have the chance to swim in the bay. I chose to sit and watch while Jeremy hoped in to brave the jellies. I watched athletes coming out of the water with red marks all over their skin and horror stories of having jellyfish wrapped around the wrists or stuck to their faces. Yikes! Jeremy was out longer than I expected. When he came back he said that he was both more and less nervous about the swim the next morning. He said that he couldn't relax during the entire swim because he was always on high alert for running into jellyfish. The worst part was as he'd pull his hand back and the tentacles would just tangle in his fingers and stay with him through the whole stroke. At one point he had one hit his head, chest, hands, and feet all at once and had kind of a freak out moment because he was completely surrounded. The stings weren't horrible, but they bothered him most of the day. He came out with probably 20-30 stings. Great, what awaited all those athletes on race morning?
Race morning was pretty calm with not crazy hiccups. We slathered Jeremy with vaseline to protect against the jellyfish and then he hoped in ready to go.
I couldn't see him very well once he was in the water, but his splits were coming back like he was doing great. I volunteered at the T1 sunscreen station and I watched as all the athletes came past in various states of misery. Some of the athletes didn't get stung very much, but others asked me to be very gentle as I rubbed in the sunscreen to avoid their stings. I heard of at least five jellyfish stuck to their faces, ladies who were in the change tent crying because of the stings, I watched as a couple athletes walked past me to grab their bags and bike because their race was done already, and saw other athletes who never even got in the water. Wow. When Jeremy came flying by he was in good spirits. He was only stung once and it wasn't that bad. Whew, one obstacle gone.
This is not a very good bike course for spectating, so while Jeremy rode I tracked him on my tracker and visited with other volunteers. The next time I would see Jeremy was once he was on his run. I was set up at an aid station right near transition, and had a little adventure of my own as we only had two volunteers plus the captains at my aid station...gulp...to put this in perspective we normally have 20-30 volunteers to make these aid stations run smoothly. Luckily we found some more volunteers but it was wild for awhile. When Jeremy came through that first time (I was going to see him six times) he was smiling. He was just off the bike and had a good time. His watts were a little low, but he still made it with no problem. When I saw him the second time he had slowed down and was walking. That didn't surprise me too much, but he was still cheerful.
The third time was much the same. However he took nearly an hour longer to come back through on the fourth time and by then I was getting really nervous. His splits on the tracker were really slow, almost slower than a walking pace. I was worried that maybe he had stopped entirely or that he was having some serious physical pain. For the first time I thought that Jeremy might DNF, and that worried me. I was so relieved when I finally saw him come back through. He was hurting pretty badly and was walking kind of funny, but he he still had a good attitude which is really important. I watched him go wondering what his last lap was going to look like. When my volunteer shift was over I started making my way towards the finish line to watch Jeremy come back through that sixth time. When I finally saw him I didn't know if I should laugh or not. He was running like an old man, all hunched over with teeny tiny steps. He was laughing too, so my laughing was ok, don't worry. His legs were giving out and I worried again that he might sit down, willingly or not, and not be able to get back up. He made it though.
My volunteer shirt let me into the finish chute where I saw him running down the chute, cross that finish line, and then I was able to give him his finisher's medal. I was really proud of him for finishing the race when it was so miserable. That takes guts and dedication.
We learned that we'll never race undertrained again, which is a good lesson. Even though it wasn't exactly the race Jeremy had been hoping for at least the finish line was beautiful at night!
