You may or may not know that we weren’t officially listed on the Ironman Brazil website until yesterday. As a matter of fact, Israel wasn’t even listed as a country in the drop down list. We committed to Issta and patiently waited for instructions. When I say patiently, I obviously mean that we took turns calling Issta every single day to check what’s up. The answer we always got was “Eeye Beseder” meaning “it will be alright” which should probably be Issta’s catch phrase since it’s the only answer we ever got. After wiring about $750.2 to an unknown in Brazil through Western Union and many weeks of waiting, we were full of anticipation. All we wanted was to choose “Israel” from the drop down list and see our three names; but every time we tried, we ended up searching “Italy” instead and getting 55-59 year old Roberto Zanotto. Good luck Roberto…

A few days ago Tamir and I went to get my stem changed on my bike. As mentioned in the post “Fit me”, I needed a shorter one. As I was riding on the trainer to try out my new position, Tamir receives an email that looks something like this:

“Hi Tamir Gotfried,

We have you confirmed for Ironman Brasil 2010!

Race number 1682…..

Train safe.”…

I yelled to him “Give me my iPhone!!” (In the Kramer/ Gotfried world, we need to specify iPhone or Blackberry because we both have each of them) I had to see my own email confirming that I’m in. I clicked on the circular refresh arrow on my iPhone email program and waited…. But nothing… well, it takes a few seconds after you send it and maybe they weren’t done with the copy/ paste and changing the name and number… I clicked refresh again… again nothing… and again….
Ooohh , Amazon has a sale on Clif bars. How did they know that would interest me? Cool… but not the email I was expecting.

Scenarios filled my head.

1. Sitting in the office tracking number 1682 on my screen, ripping my heart out and eating it.

2. We do have the same bike size… with a few props; I could totally be Tamir for the day. I just need to take his clothes, get a haircut and run a bit slower. (Babe, you wanted me to write this part   , it’s all out of love)

3. Standing in the finish line, 20 depression pounds heavier, holding a sign saying “Go 1st and 2nd wheel…. We all know who the 3rd is”

Reality sunk in as we were once again taking up Amos’s sleep time. We left and I thought about how it would be ok. I’ll get the email soon.

A few hours later, we all get an email from Raanan. He got the official email just like Tamir and only I’m left in the unknown. It’s not a big deal though, maybe tomorrow…

I admit, I was getting nervous but I continued to let Tamir be optimistic for me and finally I got it… number 1683. I’m in! The 3rd wheel team is all in!

Now we can really start panicking. Before our name was on the website, our panic wasn’t justified but now we have reason to worry. Now we can start thinking about the waves and the weather and our equipment and nutrition etc. Now its official – The 3rd wheel (Anat, Tamir & Raanan) are signed up for IM Brazil! I’ve never done this much to justify a tattoo

Tamir and I are in London for the 3rd wheel exclusive training camp. Raanan forgot to submit his application for the camp and therefor won’t be joining us. Raanan, you will be missed. I’ve been in London since Monday (just running & working) and Tamir arrived last night. The camp is all inclusive for 3rd wheel members and sponsored by 3rd wheel & “co.” (mainly the “co.” ). The main event is a long run by the Thames lasting around 2 hours on Saturday. Attractions will include us (duh)… and maybe a few sights on the riverfront (like the ferris wheel, etc). We are going to bring our trusty flip to document our London run so take a dramamine and get ready (it might be a bit shaky). Other than that, I had the pleasure of running with the Barclays Capital track club. We ran from the Barcap building in Canary Wharf over to a local track. It was a bit drizzly but we managed to start and soon enough the rain was over. I arrived quite confident that I was fast; after all, I did finish a whole marathon. Very quickly, I realized that I am ( for lack of a better term ) a “slow poke”. Our workout was 200m,400m,600m,800m,1000m,1000m,800m,600m,400m,200m with 60 second breaks after short sets and 90 second breaks after long sets. Granted I ran 50 minutes in the morning as well, but this workout was freakin’ hard!! After every set my pulse was around 192 and by the time I got started again it wasn’t that much less. The conclusion from this painful experience is that it’s time to start doing some track work. My muscles were sore the next day… Cheers!