In Arizona

I am know officially checked into the race! I am the proud wearer of a silver bracelet!

Arrived yesterday, got the rental and waited for Ed to get in from Seattle. We went and drove the bike course and then went to his buddy Joel's work and then to his home. We ran 54 minutes...not sure the distance but definitely over 6 miles....hammy felt OK, not great...not sure if the run was smart but right now I feel OK so who knows..... the run wasn't taxing for me though so....... Grabbed some dinner and racked out.

I slept pretty good but woke about 0400 (0600 my time) and had thoughts about the race running through my head...nodded back off and got some more sleep.

We rolled to the race site for a swim, check in and bike pick up..... pretty cool walking up to the swim start and Andy Potts was there giving swim instructions..... starting taking out my stuff and realized I had forgotten a swim cap....walked around and found out that we didn't need one and was putting on my wetsuit when an older women asked me for some anti- chaffing aides..... normally I wouldn't share my stick of body glide with an unknown but she had a cool accent and was real sweet.... they were from the Netherlands and were very nice..... she gave me a really nice swim cap from her Dutch Tri club when I mentioned I didn't have one with me..... very nice couple.

The water was cold! I think we swam about 1000 meters or so just trying to get our bearing and sighting.....also trying to understand the course and identify some sighting points..... weird but sometimes I felt great out there others times it felt so weird.... tons of people out there swimming in every direction did not help! Its funny though the distance didn't freak me out like I thought it would..... we'll see race day though!

Saw they were giving out massages so I got some work on my leg/hip and buttocks..... Joel has this thing called a DMS (Deep muscle stimulator that I have been using that just kicks ass) the leg felt good after the work.......... we changed and talked with a female pro triathlete and her husband (name I will remember later) and then walked by in the in and out sport tent and spied my Lucy in the bike rack calling my name....

Line way too big for check in so we browsed the tents... I bought Meg something.... and then we got back in line... I checked in (rather seamlessly) and then went to the Community Fund Section to get the additional paraphernalia you receive for paying all that extra money.. (thank god for the Bush rebate checks last spring).. Got a sweet running jacket, LS shirt and visor. I then went and freed Lucy from the clutches of the bike racks.

Joel took her home and Ed and I went and grabbed some lunch. We returned after lunch and Ed got his bike out of tri bike transport. We ran some errands and headed back to Joels to check out the bikes.... I noticed there was some play in my top tube/ front fork area..... not sure how this could have happened but not stressing about it... I made some cosmetic changes to the bike and we went on about a 15 mile ride stopping at the bike shop to get Lucy fixed. It took the dude like 30 second to fix and we went cruising.... Ave pace was good and I even picked it up once to 30MPH on the flats. Still not sure about the hanmmy but we will wait and see.

Had dinner with some of Ed's friends tonight..... I am pretty damm tired tonight. We are planning a light swim tomorrow (all the buoys will be up) and another message on the leg. We have the pre race meeting and Meg gets in at 5:00 PM. Will report in when I can and take some pictures tomorrow for posting.