
Jeers: To the drunk college girl who came back from partying to our hotel at 2:30 a.m. and banged on everyone's door until she found her own room...which just happened (as luck would have it) to be next to our room.
She proudly, and in a drunk voice, announced to her friends that she just woke up half of the hallway trying to find her room. Than she spent the next hour blabbing at top of her lungs until somebody finally screamed at her to "Shut the F" up in such a crazed homicidal manner that it even scared me.
I guess when you train an entire year for a race you probably want to get at least a few hours of sleep before the big day. I can see why you would happily take (say a chainsaw) to a rude and drunk coed who would think it funny to wake you up with her inane drunken blabbering at 3:30 a.m. At least that's what I was ready to do had I had a chainsaw and a few ounces of gas.
Cheers: To Scott from Fast Forward sports and my buddy Steve for being two of the most excellent Sherpas. It was so nice to have both of these guys to help me across the finish line at the end of the day.
Steve was kind enough to bring up his scooter from Chicago which made the second loop of the bike so much easier. Scott was even kinder to take my number and chip and run a personal PR for me of 1:30 on the first half of the marathon.
You know I'm just kidding...right?
These guys were terrific to me and it made my day that much more fun and special. I would highly recommend both of these fine fellows as your next race day sherpas and don't forget to tell Steve to bring his scooter.
BTW: If you live in the Boulder or Denver area and you are signed up for Ironman Wisconsin for next year, Scott is running a training group next year, and doing the Sherpa duties for his group all over again. If you are lucky and email him, he may let you join and that would make your IM so much better that I can't even begin to tell you how much faster your race would be.
Jeers: To the Mexican dude who took my run special needs bag.
In case you don't know you get two special needs bags for an IM. They give you these at the halfway point of the bike and of the marathon. I tend to put things like salt tablets, extra nutrition, and something like an ice tea to reward myself in these bags.
When I was in the transition area before the race checking on my transitions bags I put down my special needs bags for just a second. When I looked back my run special needs bag was gone.
I can only assume that the Mexican dude next to me picked it up thinking it was one of his. I only looked away for a few seconds and he was the only possible person who could have taken it...which is understandable since we are all carrying around a bunch of these bags. Only I wish he had put it into the special needs section for me since he must have known he had one too many bags.
In the end I had to beg and borrow salt tablets since I spilled all of mine on the bike, and my back-up stash never showed up for the run. And you know I was really looking forward to a sweet ice tea at hour 11 on the run.

Jeers: To all of the swimmers I saw who cut the corners of the rectangle and swam inside the corner buoys, instead of outside the corner buoys. I saw at least several dozen people do this at each corner of the swim and it really made me angry.
I had a pretty crappy swim as I was unable to make a clean single stroke without hitting somebody else. So I understand why hundreds of people swam inside the buoy line. That's all well and good but you still need to come around, and not inside, the corner buoy.
Trust me I completely understand why you would cut the corner. You are swimming along and in a few strokes you happen to be past the corner buoy, but on the inside of it.
I really get it as a very similar thing happened to me last week. I was sitting at home with a syringe full of EPO and before I knew it my hand slipped, and I had ejected myself with the stuff.
These things happen right?
No they don't.
An Ironman swim is 2.4 mile and not 2.3 or 2.38. If you cut the corners for whatever reasons on the swim, in my book at least, you are not an Ironman. You are a DQed athlete.
Cheers: To all of the 3500 hundred volunteers and thousands of spectators for helping out and coming to watch the race. I have never been to a more friendly race in my life. The entire weekend was like a magic carpet ride of joy and cheers. It was beyond my wildest expectations and I'll be forever in love with the fine folks of the city of Madison, Wisconsin.
Cheers: To Mike Ricci, my couch. Here's what he just wrote the team about me:
"Roman! - I don't know what Roman's goal was - but I knew he was going to do better than Great Floridian in 05. Two weeks ago, we tapered Roman for an OLY race, so I wasn't sure how he would handle the IM on an extended taper, but he did GREAT! Congrats Roman! Big guys can race fast too! Run splits: 2:43/2:49! Very nicely paced out Roman!"
So Mike needs to read my Blog ;-) but besides that I couldn't ask for better coach. He got me through the race in fine form. I felt great afterwards and I did exactly what I needed to do to be able to race this weekend. I had a huge smile on my face the entire day (except when I discovered my special needs bag was gone) and I completely blame Mike for that smile.
Thanks Dude!
Jeers: To the guy on the bike course who gave me a dirty and disgusted look when I was on the phone to my wife and son in Colorado. I was coming up to the bike transition and I called, yes I called, my wife to tell her so that she and Tommy could see me on Ironman live when I came back from the bike. I also called her right before I crossed the finish line.
Dude, I'm not racing you for a Kona slot and the phone call was my only way of sharing the day with my family. So take a chill pill (preferably the suppository type) and relax. By that point in the race it must have been pretty obvious to anybody including you) that none of us were in the money so just let me share my day with my family.

Cheers: To my family, friends, raceAthlete crew, readers, and great sponsors for all of your support this year. It was a great day so thanks to all of you.
Cheers: To North American Sports for putting on a great race and for letting me get a voucher to register for next year before the race. I now have a gold ticket to next year's race and best of all I have until October 10 to register and pay.
Will I be racing again next rear?
I really can't say as of today since I still have that half Ironman this weekend. We'll see but I just having the gold ticket in my pocket makes me feel all giddy inside.