Post-ironman vacation

Never done an IronMan, but I do my marathons as an excuse to travel, so can speak from that experience. Vacationing, sightseeing is fine, I wouldn't, however, plan on doing a lot of walking the next day or two after the event. I remember shuffling down the streets of Guadalajara after R'n'R, and the hilarity of a Capitol/Library of Congress tour with a bunch of Louisiana marathoners after Marine Corp, having all of us walk backwards down all those stairs.

Now, at least the first day after the race, we stick to more "sedentary" things such as driving and/or bus tours. But then, we also skydived off the north shore of Oahu the day after Honolulu...

At Coeur D'Alene my family and a friend's family hung out for 3 days after and water skied, kayaked, ate, drank, tubed, got invited to a party, and then ate, drank, and waterskied some more.

It was the perfect time for a vacation.  It reminded me of getting done with finals - you get finished with this huge thing that has been hanging over your head and stressing you out and now you are ready for some fun.  The few days before IM, while fun, are no vacation.  Wife said I wasn't pleasant to be around those days (I have no idea what she meant ) so you might owe a vacation to the family.

I wish we could have stayed longer after the race but you definitely need to get there 3 days before (2 at the minimum for registration) so that takes away from available vacation time.

My IM is the center of my vacations.  This year I will go to Arizona 12 days before the race.  This gives me time to acclimatize to the heat and as I'm in the taper there is not much to do for training so I will go to the desert towns and get used to the heat and get caught up on the history and geography.  I might spend a day in the Grand Canyon too but it's cold there.  After the race I will stay and relax by the poolside for a couple of days.  Not sure what i'm going to do for the Wisconsin race but I'll probably check out the geography and history of that state too.

I am doing IM CDA this year. I have never visited the NW so it will be my first trip to WA & ID.  I plan on taking a few hours to drive to MT just to say I have been.  MY plan afterwards is to travel to Seattle for 3 days then up to Vancouver for 3 days.  So yes, I plan on turning the IM into a vacation.