The Day Before IronMan

It's here. The day before IronMan. All our bikes are ready, our gear separated into 5 (yes 5!)bags to drop off at transition, and nervous/anxious/terrified people everywhere. We all have light workouts today (500m swim/30min bike/15min run), mostly just to give you something to do, I think. And one last check to make sure everything's okay on your bike. The excitement and tension is almost palpable.

The town of CDA is a small beach town located in Northern Idaho. It's the kind of town with a few locals, tons of tourists, shops, dining, and a beautiful lake. Overall, a wonderful spot for an ironman. We've been here since Wednesday, and definitely have enjoyed the stay. We started off Thursday with a chilly swim. We completed one loop of a two loop course, and it was very, very choppy. The way out took forever, then I swear I caught a wave on the way back and rode the thing for 2-3 minutes. What a ride! It was really cold, and thank goodness I picked up a long sleeve wetsuit. I could do it with a sleeveless, but I'll be much more comfortable this way. Well, as comfortable as you can get with 2600 people trying to use you as a punching and kicking dummy. :) After the swim we all registered, drove the course, and went for an afternoon bike ride. The traffic was scary (I didn't write that part yesterday), and I'm really glad we'll have lots of police around to keep the cars away on Sunday. Small streets and beach-goers not used to all these bikes around made for a challenging ride.

Friday morning K, momo, and Heather wanted to go for another swim. We also met IronBenny and Nytro! Benny seems to have had some challenges during this training, much like I did, and so we had lots to talk about. He was swimming, and Nytro went, too, so we didn't hang out for very long. I wasn't into the swim, and my schedule said "Rest", so I sat on the wall and watched everyone's stuff. We haven't run into them since, but hope to see them again today. I didn't catch his race #, and want to know it for race day. We are lucky enough to have a bunch of people in our cheering squad along the course, and they can cheer for Ben, too!

Oh - I forgot to mention shopping Wednesday night. Normally I'm not really into shopping, but the event merchandise goes fast, so we went right away. My favorite thing was that I got the kids a present - new leashes with "IronDog" on them. :) They trained for this thing with us, so they deserve to get some race gear. Baxter is pretty funny, actually. He somehow seems to understand. When we get home, we'll put our medals around his neck and he runs around for a little bit all proud of himself. One of these days I'm going to enter us into a dog friendly race and get that guy a medal of his own. He has run countless miles with me, always wanting more, and he deserves his spot on our medal wall. Anyway, back to IronMan...

Last night we had our athlete welcome dinner and mandatory meeting. The food really wasn't bad, but the meeting went from 5:30 - 8:45. It was LONG! There was a whole "show" going on and lots of people speaking, etc, so it's not like it was just quiet. But it was still a very long time. The most interesting, and unfortunate, thing we learned is that Mike Reilly, who is the "voice" of IronMan, the guy who announces those famously wonderful words "You are an IRONMAN!!!!" had a bit of a bike accident yesterday. He was on his bike and riding the new course, so he could talk intelligently about it, and came up on a corner he couldn't make. The result? 2 broken ribs and a collapsed lung! Yikes. He managed to talk for a minute (talk about an Ironman!!!) and said that his clips were still attached to his bike - the fall ripped them from his shoes! Wow. He promised us that he'd be there tomorrow, and I believe him. His dedication clearly goes way, way beyond his "job" of announcing. He cares about each and evey one of us, and has a deep love for the sport. You can just tell. He's probably not feeling so well today, so we all wish him well.

That brings us to today. A few quick workouts, our 14th time to check our gear bags to make sure they're right, and a mostly sleepless night. Then, it's time. IronMan. I can't wait. You can watch it online, too. www.ironman.com will have race coverage all day. Here we go...