T-4 days.....

Saturday, May 1 is race day. 4 days from today and I am relatively calm....90% well form the recent illness and am confident by Saturday the lingering issues will be gone. Only in the morning do I feel the residual cold, but after a few good hacks I am good as new, well close anyway. Each day is better so that is a good thing. I have all my wellness formulas going on daily- my immune system ought to be rock solid by Saturday.

Bike is cleaned up, checked over (thanks Dave Moment Cycle Sport for the Sunday morning tune up), race wheels on which makes her (the bike - which I have yet to name) ready to rock and roll. She just exudes confidence sitting in my office. I have wrestled with names....Ruby is my road bike, that was ez to name. My Kuota was KK ( you have to figure out what the 1st K stands for) but the Kestrel has been nameless for a year now. I have given her some horrible names during low periods of training, called her a heavy piece of shit, lazy, brake rubbing loser... and many more I shamefully admit. I recently consulted the web for how to name my bike and quickly found a detailed descripgion on one of my favorite blogs Fat Cyclist. So one of the suggestion is the color and what does he recommend for Orange- Angry Orange. Please, how can I name my bike that- really that is how I feel but not all the time. So she remains nameless until one really sticks....any suggestions?

Race gear packed,repacked and then checked again at 3am when I woke up wondering did I pack the Garmin charger- unpack and find that yes I did. 6 bags of carefully measured white powder.....looks suspicious but a quick taste by any officer would bring a light fruit and salty flavor from Infinit to his mouth. Every piece of cold weather cycling gear I own...jackets, arm/leg warmers, gloves, disposable hand warmers...you name it. If it is really 45 in the morning and the high is 60 and raining, I am going to be in the transition tents a big longer than the usual fly through I usually do. Seriously I may not swim in my gear- getting on the bike soaking wet after swimming for an hour in 55-60 degree water in the rain would be um chilly and not set me up for a good day. So there will be decisions to be made race morning. I will not freeze like I did on lap 1 last year at IM CdA. I was ready to pay anyone for a jacket, knock over a kid who was spectating and steal his coat- the horrible things that cross our minds when we are racing.

The nervousness of IM is different every time.....yes I know the distance and can deal with that (I hope so anyway) but the anxiety about a new venue is both exciting and scary. No one to give points on where to start, left, right etc. What to look our for on the swim? swim is one loop, like Kona, which I like, no getting out 1/2 way through and running on the sand, but it is one big ass loop. I'll see T1 when we set up, but figuring out and remembering which way to run, where my gear bag is, tent and oh right my bike as well. And this race has a split transition so T2 is someplace else. We drop off our run gear on Friday and then don't see it again until Saturday after we get off the bike! I did this at Vineman 70.3 and it worked fine, but is still caused a lot of anxiety for sure. On top of that I have a different nutrition stratey...never tried before and decided to experiment on race day! Not...have tried in training but differnet for the race. After some GI issues in Hawaii and Oceanside I am hoping this will be a better fit, but nevertheless different and going to rely on special needs. I have always gotten my special needs bag so will assume that once again I will get it this year. Okay enough about all this.....just writing about is has got the swarms of butterflies going in my belly....

We drive out tomorrow AM. Never done a road trip to an Ironman before- should be a good time with Johh and TB. We did a trail run for the camp in Nov so we know where the Starbucks are along the way, where the good gas stations are etc. And I don't have to worry about missing my flight, the airlines jacking with my derailleur etc.

That gives us Thur and Friday to get the lay of the land - have not seen the swim start so will be swimming both days and of course registering etc. Okay signing off....too much anticipation building right now- Cheers!

It's all good.....