Wil on Her Way

Iron Wil is well on her way to completing her first Ironman distance triathlon. For updates, you can use the Ironman website, but I seriously recommend stopping by her blog. Simply Stu has been tracking her, taking pictures, and updating her weblog with her status. While the Ironman site might give you an idea of her times, Stu is giving Wil the rock star treatment, and doing a great job. Kudos to him for his awesome coverage.

I was lucky enough to make a road trip to Madison for some of the Saturday festivities. After keeping in touch with Tri Mama via e-mail and phone, it became obvious we might miss each other. She asked me to pass her number along to Iron Wil if I happened to meet up with her. No small feat given the size of both Madison and Ironman Village, the sheer number of people there, and the fact that Iron Wil and I had never met. And we think completing an Ironman is easy.

After taking a break to allow Monster Girl to crawl around, I was looking for a convenient spot to give her a bottle, I came across a young lady talking on the phone. Something about her made me stop and wait for her to finish. "Excuse me, would you happen to be Iron Wil?"


Sure enough, it was. We talked for a bit, and exchanged vital phone numbers. And for someone less than 24 hours away from the start of her first Ironman, she was very calm. In fact, a good portion of our conversation focused on 2007 and Team raceAthelete. We took a picture, and two important ladies needed to eat.

While feeding Monster Girl (and trying to keep B-Boy from getting mowed down in the hallway), I got in contact with TriGreyhound. He made the trip all the way to Madison to volunteer on race day. We met up and spent some time discussing various issues, again focusing quite a bit on IM MOO 2007. I was glad to meet Greyhound, and appreciated the way he immediately started watching out for my kids (yes, I was there with two kids and no wife). Ironically, his response to seeing me on my own with both the infant and the toddler matched Tri Mama's, "You must be brave." We shall see. Monday will be the true test of fortitude.

The trip was worth the effort. It was about four hours round trip, for about the same amount of time in Madison. In that time, I met Iron Wil and TriGreyhound. I came pretty close to making my decision about 2007 (thanks to a few not so subtle nudges). And TriMama and I had some initial discussions for future projects, including training ideas and possible podcasts.

Who would have thought that one day in Madison could generate so much energy for an event that is still a year away? It did. Wil, Trisaratops, Trigreyhound, TriMama, SimplyStu, and myself are all jazzed, and that happened before the cannon for today's race even sounded.

Do what you can to sign up for IM MOO 2007. It promises to be a wild ride.