I slept good on Saturday night. Meg and I went to dinner with Ed and Summer at PF Changes and I was asleep by 9:00PM. I awoke at 0340. What I didn't mention before is that I was having my typical digestive issues and had taken four digestive "assistance" pills the day before and spent 1/2 the early evening on the toilet. It seemed to work in my favor though as I was able to take care of business that morning and I felt fine.
That morning I ate:
2X ensure (500 calories)
1 cup of coffee (50 calories)
1 Kashi bar (190 calories)
1 Banana
Water
Ed had suggested a liquid breakfast so I tried to follow suit as best as possible. I had put my stuff together the night before so I was ready to go that morning. I grabbed my two frozen Perpetuem bottles from the freezer right before I left the room. (Both Ed and I froze both bottles but wrapped one in a towel and place it in ice for our bike special needs bag.... would recommend one or the other.... it was cold right away but warm up pretty quick...do not need to wrap it in an "ice" towel and put it on ice in a plastic bag..too hard to unwrap during the race)
Ed and I rolled and arrived a little before 5:00AM. We parked across the street in the garage and made our way to our bikes. We had to stage our bikes the day before so I checked my bike (Lucy was fine), put my first bottle of perpetuem in a cage, extra enduralytes, some race cap supreme pills Ed gave me and some 800MG Motrin, 1 Hammer flask and then just sorta surveyed the area................ incredible to take in all these awesome bikes and sleek looking athletes!
I then went to the transition bags with Ed to place some stuff. IM race are different than all the races I have done in that you transition not on your towel but with a pre-positioned bag that is handed to you and you make your transition in a tent. In my swim to bike bag I put:
tri shoes
socks
biking shorts
tri top
Aero Helmet
Sunglasses
Chamois Cream
HR Strap
Garmin 301
In my bike to run bag I place:
socks
Newton Running shoes
Hat
visor
I then hit my special need bags and placed:
Bike:
Frozen bottle of perpetuem in the bag of ice
Run:
long sleeve shirt
hammer flask
I pumped up my tired to 155 (Max pressure is 165 but I wanted to play it safe with the expansion of the tires). I sat for a while... arranged my stuff....chatted with a few folks and then as time got near I put my wet suit on....I was freezing though as the ground was very cold... I dropped my bag with all the cloths I had been wearing and went to find Ed. He was still in his socks so I used his shoes to keep my feet of the ground..... his buddy Joel found us and we finally made that finale journey toward the water's edge. We looked for Summer and Meg but couldn't find them... I was watching everyone just jump into the lake it all seemed so confusing and the announcer was saying we had only five minutes to the race started....
I started to get nervous and knew I want some time to get acclimated to the water....we edges ourselves towards the water and we sashayed ourselves onto the dock like structure...lost track of Ed and Joel. Heard the announcer say three minutes to the star and I jumped into the water!......................so cold! Moved forward..not sure what stroke you would call it to the start line. Had no clue where Joel and Ed were....we all had blue caps swim caps on! Saw some smart folks on the edge of the lake holding on to the side and envied them for being so sly.... Was trying to get orientated and I my heart dropped as I heard the loud boom of the starting gun go off as a foot came out of no where and wrapped me in the left leg and before I knew it I was moving forward! Please, if you have never experience what I am about to describe..... go to Utube and punch in IM AZ swim start and watch the video...it is crazy! I will try to describe it but you have to just watch it to appreciate it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUC2qDrg-Lk
Here are a couple pictures of Ed and I putting our stickers on the bike....
Will finish the rest tomorrow and post pictures from the race!
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