Madison Here I Come!

I think I may have forgotten something.

The much-anticipated weekend is here!  This feels a little less momentous than last year, when I luxuriated on the Beach in the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia as a means to prepare for Ironman Canada, but in my attempt to become a perennial Ironman, I need to be able to wake up in my own bed and routine a mere days before the big event.  Today I saw Peter and the kids off before I finished loading the car and left Oak Park.

Hmmm....any other triathletes around here?

Then to Madison, a beautiful city, surrounded by two gorgeous lakes and the Monona Terrace Convention Center, designed by FLW himself, which is pretty cool.  I knew well enough to go ahead and park in the convention center, and proceed to the check-in area. A line to baffle the most endurable souls, but alas, this is Ironman and Ironman does as Ironman sees fit.

swim course and bike path, helix shaped parking structure in distance.

Any Ironmen around here?

 The lakefront views found from the convention center are impressive, as is the bike path that circles the like and, egads! oodles of people using the paths and bikeways (sigh) around town.  The triathletes aren't hard to spot, with their high end bicycles, look of anxiety in their eyes, and carrying wetsuits around, ready for a pre-race swim.  Yes, LF, I thought about working out myself, but I'm more the kind to cherish the time to myself. After all, I'm in Madison, Alone! This won't last. I can work out any day, besides, I've got to get away from all the triathlon nervous energy and get some food.  So I head over the the Willie Street Co-op, where I find suitable lunch and groceries to bring to the motel.  All in life is good:

Great stuff. Good local baguette, goat's milk brie, cucumber salad (somebody forgot the salt) and sundried tomato pesto.

But the best part of my morning came when I was heading back to the car.  I encountered a woman wearing the most wonderful granny square skirt I've seen in a long time!  I stopped her and praised the high heavens for the work which most likely was vintage.  She hadn't made it herself, and her companion commented that this was the first time she had ever heard the reference "granny square".

This is vintage craft. I'm in AWE!!!!!

 Now, we can tackle Ironman, high crochet has been discovered, we have patronized a great co-op, and all the work is done. What else, besides pushing aside the exhaustion I'm feeling, sitting here in a quiet motel room right off of State Street, wondering how I can endure Sunday?