Iceman Registration and New Coeur Kit

This past week was super exciting.  I had received word that my Chinese New Year print tri kit from Coeur Sports was on its way.  Plus, Iceman registration opened Friday at noon.

Last year was the first year that Iceman utilized the USA Cycling website and servers to handle registration.  It was my first year, so I don't have any of the horror stories of my own about spending hours online trying to get through to the website of prior years.  However, it used to be an all day affair.  They also offer onsite registration at Bell's where you can use a paper and pen/pencil.  There are a limited number of paper entries, but since we are in KY, that's not an option at all.  Even where we lived in MI, its still a 4 hour drive.

Friday morning I had some blood work that needed to be done for my thyroid.  I still don't feel like we have it right, but thankfully I'm not getting more tired or gaining any weight (that is not explainable) right now.  Its just that blah tired feeling that I get all the time that we are trying to fix, and my levels just seem to stay the same no matter the medication levels.  I go back in a couple weeks to review the results and see if we will make any changes.  I got in a quick swim, did one errand, and then was home around 11ish.  Plenty of time to be ready for registration.  I got logged in to USAC site and made sure Ryan was still listed in my "group", because I was going to register both of us.  I traded texts back and forth with Ryan's friend Kent, the whole reason we got into this, to determine if he was going to be part of a huge group that was being registered by our friend Janelle.  I was on the fence with joining her group, and sort of like the control that I had over my own destiny here, plus, whoever registered everyone had to pay for everyone, so I liked that I could just pay for Ryan and myself on our own card.  Eric was also signing up Mindy, and a few other friends were signing up themselves and spouses only as well.  Here was my set up.  IPad and laptop, ready to go.  I had a timer on the phone too, for 11:55 to start refreshing for the sign up link to appear.  It was just black at this point.  Note the lightsabers.  Our coffee table is a mess!  I also saw our mailtruck enter the neighborhood, and hoped my new Coeur kit was on it, because of when it had shipped.  Such excitement!!! 

Since last year's registration went so smoothly, I expected this year to go the same.  It sold out in 33 minutes or something crazy because everyone got into the website quickly.  I hit refresh at 12 and I got nothing.  A complete white screen.  The same on the iPad.  Crud.  I tried my phone.  I was able to get to the screen where I was supposed to pick a category, but there were none to pick or any links on the page.  Plus, it was teeny tiny on my phone.  AAAAHHH.  I ran into the basement carrying the laptop, iPad, phone, and my wallet, and hoped I didn't drop anything.  I booted up the dinosaur down there called a desktop, and waited there.  Still nothing more than white screens or the screen with nothing to select on my phone.  Its been 25 minutes of refreshing.  I didn't have any other tabs open on the computer just so it wouldn't have to work harder (not sure if that is really helpful or not, but at least it was less distracting to me).  I called Kent, who said he was in, but really he wasn't, and said no one was getting anywhere.  I opened facebook.  Everyone was struggling.  Eric, Kent, and Janelle were all freaking out too.  Whew.  Glad it wasn't just me.  I went back upstairs since the dino computer wasn't doing anything and I wanted to plug back into the wall.  I  just kept hitting refresh on the page with the registration and no boxes.  Eric had gotten passed it once.  It was taking FOREVER to load, but as time progressed, it was getting a little better.  I went out and check the mail, since Soren reported that the mail truck was leaving the neighborhood.  Low and behold was my new kit!  Gosh, it looked tiny.  Standing in the living room, between hitting refresh, I tried it on.  It fit!  It took a bit of wiggling to get it on, but once it was on, I was quite comfortable. 

AND, shortly after putting it on, I got through the system, entered my credit card, and my confirmation email popped up!  The link the email wouldn't work because I couldn't get back into the system, but I took a screen shot of it, and figured I would hold Iceman too it if it wasn't right.  It had a confirmation number and everything.

Everyone else was struggling still.  Eric posted that he had only heard of 3 people who had gotten in.  Ryan and I made 4 and 5.  I told him that it was because I put on my kit right there in the living room and wore it for registration.  I called Ryan.  He was getting worried that none of our friends had gotten in.  This is one of those races that without friends, its just not as fun!  However, after about 90 minutes into it, a switch was switched, and the registrations got through.  First, Eric and Mindy were in, and then Kent.  Finally, Janelle turned over her duty to Eric and he got her group in.  After checking around with everyone, everyone I knew that wanted to get in got in.  It was just more stressful than we expected, but no worse than years prior to last. 

Saturday was actually plenty warm, but I opted to do a tempo run indoors so that I could push the pace and hit the splits, plus test out my new kit.  It felt great.  I ran 6 with the middle 4 at 7:30 pace.  My plan this year calls for 7:19, but I haven't been able to hit the really fast paces so I used last years.  It was tough, but I did it.  Here I am after my workout.  Wow, my hair was crazy!

I had several friends ask what I thought about the white (basically concerned that it would get dirty or be see through).  There is a built in sports bra that is black, so I wasn't worried about the see through issues.  I was pretty well soaked through in this picture, and except for getting a tad chilled under a fan, wasn't too worried about anything.  The bottoms are red.  I did sweat a ton on this workout, and it did sort of look like I peed my pants, but that is just what you get with red bottoms, or really any color other than black for me.  I struggled with sweat spots whenever I had a red leotard.  Since I competed for Buckeye Gymnastics and then Ohio State, I had my fair share of red leotards.  I am more worried about dirt though.  I do have a red tri top with black shorts on order for my summer tris.  Island Lake water is very green, and the Ohio river is brown.  Prairie Creek Reservoir is also on the green side.  I did get a swim skin, but I still don't want to come across the finish line looking green or brown.  I think this will be great for running and my cycling only events.  I plan to try out the shorts on the trainer probably tomorrow.  It washed up great.  I washed the red and white top with the red bottoms and everything stayed the proper colors.  I even used a bit of stain stick on it because I somehow managed to get myself dirty already.  Usually I have pretty good luck with my white gear.  I have a white Lulelemon skirt that I have done OK with, as well as a white based IM kit.  Plus, I totally saved my white PI bolero from what was an almost certain bloody death with oxiclean and peroxide.