2007 IMWI Volunteer/Sherpa Report Part 1

Sorry for the delay in this post, work and catching up on real life stuff after several consecutive weekends of travel had to come first...

Preface
I headed to Madison at lunchtime Friday and arrived at my friend's place with just enough time to unpack the van, stretch a bit and spend a few minutes snuggling with my host for the weekend.

I kept Gonzo (aka the sweetest cat on the planet) company in exchange for free crash space at my buddy's place 5 minutes from Monona Terrace.

This year the trip felt vastly different from last year, all in good ways. Last year was an incredible experience I wouldn't change for the world, but being who I am it was also a challenging experience, because I don't like not knowing. And it didn't matter that (with the exception of that nasty sinus infection) everything went well last year and I had a fantastic time - bottom line is I went into it blind and that always makes me tense.

This year I knew where I was going, I knew who I was going there with, I knew what to expect and when to expect it. Color me OCD, but this made for a calm and happy Siren. Even dealing with the little inconveniences of road construction and traveling pregnant wasn't too bad because I felt like I had a handle on everything.

Friday
I went to the 4:00 Tri Blogger Meet-up on Friday and I was thrilled to see old friends and meet new ones. There was much joking, taking of pictures and general camaraderie. I was especially excited to finally meet Wendy, and I must say I was taken with her immediately. She's one cool lady and I encourage anyone who has the chance to hang out with her sometime.

(Back Row) Bolder, AJ, Laurie, Wil, ?, Greyhound, Pharmie, Steve, Thomps, Rural Girl, Me, Wendy
(Front Row) Chris, Bubba, Simply Stu, Erin, Brent
My apologies to the bloggers who's faces I can't place! (If anyone can help me with the missing names that would be great!)

Photo credit - Mr. Wil

Ironman Powers.... ACTIVATE!!

I'd assumed more or less correctly that people would make plans for meals and general hanging out at the meet-ups, but had completely forgotten that wouldn't apply on Friday night because of the Athlete's dinner. I was kind of kicking myself for forgetting this very obvious thing and wondering if it was too late to get a ticket when Wendy let me know that she and Brent had already talked about it and had an extra ticket on hand for me! (See what I told ya? She's a seriously cool chick!)

So we all trooped into the Terrace for dinner and managed to score a table all together; thus continued the general merriment of the day.

Pharmie, ?, Laurie, Bolder, Rural Girl, Stu (sorry for the names I left off!)

Simply Stu, Wil and Mr. Wil

Tac and Greyhound

Towards the end of dinner I realized no one had yet heard from IM Able, so we called her and discovered she was shopping at the Expo one floor up. A few minutes and some jumping up and down to be seen over a crowd of 3000 later, Steve in a Speedo and I were mauling her with bear hugs and dragging her over to the rest of the gang to sit with us for the meeting.

Sidebar: At dinner I heard rumors of an Ironman onesie at the Expo, and suddenly life as I knew it could not go one until I owned one. So while the athletes listened to the course talk I slipped out to snag one for the Little Geek. Of course, they were already completely sold out.

After the athlete meeting we all went off in search of a good night's sleep.

Saturday
Arrived at the 8:00 am volunteer meeting with time to spare - no small miracle for me! While looking for my captains I ended up correcting some other captains as they misinformed the entire changing room crew about when the bike course closed and when their shift would end (this is NOT a small detail, you'd think the captains would have a handle on it!), then went to the gear bag room to find my actual captains.

My OCD extra packing paid off big time as one of the volunteers asked at the end of our meeting why the bag number sequences weren't on the BACKS of the signs as well, so the volunteers could actually, ya know, do their jobs. The gear bag captain (a friendly, intelligent well-organized guy who is by far the best captain I've worked with so far) said he would try to make that happen.

After the meeting I told him I'd brought paper, markers and tape for just such an occasion and he seemed very relieved that I was willing to take care of it for him. Another couple of very nice women jumped in and we had both rooms done in about an hour.

Ever since Mishele K brought it up, I'd been thinking hard about doing the Gatorade swim at 9:30 that morning. I'd heard anyone could do it, even wannabe Ironmen, and was serious enough about trying it I had my transition bag in the van with my suit and a change of clothes. Plus, I thought it would be kinda funny for the pregnant chick to jump in with all the Iron Folk.

I went down to the water but didn't see anyone I knew (I was hoping I'd magically recognize Blogger Mishele K, but you know how that goes) and got intimidated. I still went all the way down to the water and dipped my feet in, only to discover there's a reason every single person around me was in a wetsuit. Since I have to keep little things like my core temperature and my baby's safety in mind, I decided to bag the swim. I can always do it next year.

Went to the 11:00 Blogger meet-up, which was smaller than the night before because most of the athletes were taking care of race check-in business. One highlight was meeting Kona Shelley, who just radiates joy and friendliness. Another exciting moment for me was finally meeting Tri-Mamma and The Tribe, out in force to support Taconite Boy. She's as warm and wonderful as everyone says and I was happy to finally cross paths with her in real life. Luckily I also found Mishele K there, who told me she'd actually gone swimming at 7 (hence the not finding her at 9:30). I had a really nice time chatting with her as we wandered around the Terrace taking care of a couple things, then we parted ways.

4:00 Saturday I met with Iron Sherpas Iron Pol, AJ, Wendy and Iron Mark to make plans for picture taking locations and centralized blog updating. Even though I could feel myself getting achy and tired and cranky and generally starting to feel the long day and being 7 months pregnant, I really really hope I didn't come off too badly with these wonderful people. I was very much looking forward to working with these guys to help keep the blogosphere on top of the adventures of our fearless athletes!

After a light dinner we all headed our separate ways to turn in early, with plans to be at the swim start and early Sunday.