This past weekend, I was in Madison for several reasons. I made my second stop on the tailgating tour, turned 25, and watched two of my friends complete their first Ironman triathlon. The Ironman is 140.6 miles of swimming, biking and running. Pretty much what I need to do after I spend a weekend eating and traveling. I doubt that I will ever attempt an Ironman ( did a half marathon and decided that was enough), but my friends Claire and Katie accomplished this challenge!

 The running course of the Ironman was two 13 mile loops that covered most of downtown and UW-Madison’s campus. My friends and I secured spots on State Street to cheer on Claire and Katie. The guy above was the winner! He did the entire race in 8 hours and 38 minutes. Congrats Joe.

I had heard that there was a new cupcake place in Madison. Turns out it was right next to the Ironman course. There was some down time when cheering and waiting for Claire or Katie to run past, so I think you can guess what happened.

Sweet Impressions has delicious cupcakes, popcorn, chocolates, and other desserts. Upon walking in, I new I was going to go with a cupcake.

I decided to go with the Lemon Drop. Yellow cake with lemon cream cheese frosting. Delicious! This cupcake reminded me a lot of a Lemon Blueberry one I had in Columbia. As I was busy photographing and consuming calories I did not need, my friends were burning them.

Here is my friend Katie!

Way to go Katie! I asked her what the worst part of it was, she said “it really wasn’t bad at all, I feel great!” I am pretty sure I would not be standing let alone smiling. 13:09:26 awesome job and congrats again!

My friend Claire was also competing in her first Ironman.

Claire kicked butt! She finished in 11:22:53! and won her age group! Way to go! Congrats to Katie and Claire! I am so proud of the both of you and can not wait to watch you compete in your next one!

In college, I would watch the Ironman every year, and enjoyed it even more this year watching my friends do so well! I had a great time back in Madison and can not wait to bring you what I found on my second tailgate stop. Game day in Madison proved to be everything I had remembered it to be. Congratulations to all Ironman finishers! I think you have all earned a cupcake or two.