Race Week, Wed-Sat

As I write this, I'm looking at the IRONMAN wristband I'm wearing. It means that in a few short hours, I'm going to be out there doing something that I've been training for, visualizing, anticipating for so long. It's finally here, and that feels both wildly exciting and slightly surreal.

Fortunately, I'm really not that nervous. I know I'll have some butterflies tomorrow when I get down to transition and swim start, but I've been surprisingly calm all week. I think a lot of it comes from the confidence my coach has in my preparation- she says I'm ready, and she's never been wrong, so I must be ready, right?

I probably walked around a little more than I should have these past few days. I did my best to stay off my feet and rest, but I couldn't resist getting out there into the excitement of it all for at least a little while. It's a good thing I got here as early as I did too, because I found tons of last-minute things that needed doing. Fortunately, it turns out the only thing I forgot to bring was my salt tab dispenser. Not so fortunately, they didn't have any more at the bike shop and I wasn't looking forward to driving all over the place looking for one. Then Erik had the brilliant idea that the canisters for mini M&Ms are pretty much the same thing, so I headed to the grocery store for some. They didn't have any mini M&Ms, but the Mentos gum containers are really similar. So my salt tab dispenser for tomorrow is a Mentos gum container, and there is a pile of Mentos gum sitting in a baggie on the table.

The athlete village was really cool. I bought my requisite CDA gear, of course. I also got my mom to buy me a luggage tag that says "CDA 2009 Finisher" with my name on it- I'm not so superstitious that I couldn't buy something that said "Finisher" already, but even so I don't really want to look at it too much yet :) I also went to the "Ford Motivational Zone" and entered some messages for my friends, which they'll display at some point on the run. I didn't realize at the time that they only accept the first message they get for each athlete, so I hope my friends' families didn't try to send them messages, because they're only going to get mine (since I got here first). Whoops!

My parents are super excited. They've never seen me race before, not since high school and not in a triathlon anyway. I'm really happy that Rich and Heather could make it, since Rich is one of my very best friends and it's awesome to have him here to share this (and getting to meet Heather has been awesome too!). Mick has been insanely helpful this entire time, between giving me a flat-changing clinic and helping with everything bike-related, to keeping my parents occupied when I've been busy with other stuff. Molly got here this afternoon too, to stay with us and to cheer for not only me but also the other 98237493827 people she knows who are racing. It's great to talk to her since she's on the same path I'm on and understands what I'm feeling.

Slight drama with the bike, but everything seems fine now. When Mick and I tried to change the tire on the Zipps, we found out that they're insanely tight and neither of us could get the tire back on. We even broke two tire levers trying. We ended up having to bring it to the bike shop and have them do it for me. So, if I flat in the race, I pretty much have to wait for the bike wagon to find me. BUT, that's not gonna happen, right?? Then today, as we were leaving to go to bike check-in, he found a gouge in the back tire. It wasn't super serious, but it was enough to make me nervous to ride on it. So we ran back to the bike shop and had them swap it out with one of the tires on my other wheels. So now the new tire is on, Stella is happily camped out in transition for the night, and all is well.

The athlete's meeting on Friday night was pretty cool. All 2000+ age groupers in one huge banquet tent, listening to all the details, warnings, and rules for the course. One of the guys was really funny. He was explaining how some parts of the bike course are pretty technical and that we really should listen to the posted signs that say SLOW DOWN- he said, "I know you've been watching the Tour de France and the Giro, but, you're not that guy. So slow down." Then when he was talking about how age-groupers aren't allowed to leave their shoes clipped into the pedals for the swim-bike transition, he said, "I know you want to do it and you think you can handle it. But I've seen you, you're not that good. So don't do it."

Right now, my parents and friends are out on the front porch drinking wine and chatting, I just finished my final pre-race talk with my coach, and I'm about to mix up my bottle of concentrate for the bike and then go to bed. Wakeup time is 4am, with the goal of getting to body marking when they start at 5am. Adam is supposed to meet me there. We'll exchange our special needs bag notes for each other at that time too. I still have to write his, but I've been thinking about what I want to say for a while now so it shouldn't take long. I saw Shannon at bike drop-off earlier, WITH his bike fortunately (the airline had lost it when he first got here! Talk about stressful!). On Friday I saw the two guys I met on the plane from Denver who were coming to volunteer and sign up for next year- Joe and John- they're strippers and catchers tomorrow. I also saw John and Karen on Friday- the couple who split the cab with me to the Enterprise rental car place in Spokane when all the airport rental car places were sold out (hooray for not being the only one with poor pre-planning skills!).

This week has been awesome, the whole town has Ironman fever. But I am definitely ready to GET IT ON already! If anyone wants to track me, go on ironman.com and my bib number is 2044. See ya on the other side!!