Taper Time!

TAPIR TIME!!!!!!

Just kidding....not TAPIR, but TAPER time! That is one cute animal though, isn't it!

Ironman St. George is in a mere 6 days. Last week, I ran 6 miles Tuesday, did a trainer workout with Laura on Wednesday, and an open water swim in Lake Lanier with Laura on Thursday.

I am super lucky to be on Team Trakkers, and excited that TYR is one of our sponsors. Just in time for a really really cold swim at St. George, this little gem arrived at our house!

Doesn't it look like a superhero costume? My whole team thinks so, so here is my best superhero look:

Saturday was my last "real" workout before St. George. I will do a couple of short runs this week, but nothing much. I will test out my bike and go for a quick swim just to settle the nerves and check the equipment.

So Mark, Laura, and I took off to Lake Lanier. We swam about 45 minutes, then we rode back to Laura's house for about 2 hours 45 minutes, and then we ran for about 40 minutes. Perfect. I felt like I could go on forever. Even more perfect.

After the workout, we shared some hugs, high fives, and celebration. Now we just have to get there safe and sound this week, but the training is pretty much done at this point.

So, in honor of the accomplishment, Laura busted out her crystal, and we shared a recovery drink toast. As she said, crystal is for special occasions, and finishing a training cycle IS a special occasion. No matter what happens on race day, or how the race goes, we all overcame HUGE obstacles to get to this point--and we did a lot of it together.

Our toast? "To the finish line!"

And what better way to top off a great morning than seeing Sara, my massage terrorist, for a particularly painful session to prepare me (and my legs) for St. George.

I tried to capture what the torture sessions actually look like:

And this is what I look like:

And this is what Sara looks like when she realizes I am not playing Angry Birds, but instead, I am actually taking pictures:

So in a matter of minutes, we will be having dinner with coach, flying to Las Vegas, driving to St. George, checking in, and then swimming, biking, and running for a while. A long while.

I promise to post some tracking information before I leave for the trip. George and Sara plan to tweet for me, and there will be online tracking. And I WILL do this race. Yes, yes I will.