My motto has always been, “NEVER FORFEIT AN ENTRY FEE!” Paul’s has been, “NEVER GO TO THE DR!” So when I went back out on the course to get him and the first thing he said was, “I need to go to the med tent at the finish” and the second was, “We might be forfeiting our first entry fee”–I knew he was in trouble.
20 hours later Paul mounted the bike and pulled me through 20 mph winds that gusted even higher throughout the 63 mile ride. He has 4 inch blisters broken open on the bottom of both feet plus a patch about 5×5 inches on his inner thigh that I think is 2nd degree burned from his shorts (friction burn from chafing?), plus the usual muscle fatigue.
We came home to Barton having pooped on our bed (again) so I started washing bedclothes. Then the washer started leaking water. Luckily we have tomorrow off. Interval napping was the original plan, but now we will be doing first aid on Paul and the washing machine! We plan to post more about the race, but we both finished both races and that was our first goal. Thank you to Paul’s mom, grandmother, Biz, Roy, Becca and Tripp for coming out to support us!
EDIT 02/19/2009 by Paul:
Thankfully it looks like the washer is fine. It has moved itself back to the wall and I think that was making the hose leak. We moved it back out some and it hasn’t leaked since.
I was very proud of both of you. You have trained hard and it paid off. I really enjoyed being there with you.
I’m so proud of you two. Ya’ll did a great job! Tripp and Becca had a GREAT time playing in the rain puddles at the finish line and we were all very excited to see you cross!
YEAH!!! I knew you two could do it! I’m proud of you and happy for you.
Now Paul can stop complaining about having to run so much