MY FIRST IRON-DISTANCE TRIATHLON (PRE-RACE)

PRE-RACE

We arrived on Wednesday to the most beautiful, sunny and 70 degree weather. After the October weather in Chicagoland, it felt awesome. We rented a house downtown historic Wilmington. It was the perfect place for our family for the weekend. Although this weekend was about my race, I wanted them to enjoy also.

On Thursday night, it was the athlete's dinner. The food was great and the company even better. It was a blogger meet up as you can see in the photo.

From left to right, Shirley-Perly, Vickie,21st Century Mom, Waddler, SW Trigal, and TriSharkie. The main point of discussion was the attire for race day. It was great to get alot of different perscpectives on who was

wearing what gear.

After a good night's sleep, I picked up Sharkie, Shirley and Vickie for an early swim at the beach.We got there close to 7am to see what it was like at that time of the day. As we drive there we saw many others with the same idea going into swim at different points. We chose to swim at the start of the course. Standing at the beach looking out, I was very nervous. Once I got into the water, I felt good.

At noon, it was time for the athlete's meeting. It was over an hour long but full of alot of information. As I sat there looking around the room, it was one of those moments when you wondered if you belonged there. I knew that I had put my time in and earned a chair in that room. I couldn't stay after for a blogger meet up because Sharkie and I had to pick up Snips at the airport. She flew in to watch us and volunteer at the finish line.

The afternoon was filled with mixing nutrition and filling the 5 race day bags with the necessary stuff and trying not to miss anything. I think I went over everything a million times. The sun was getting ready to set and Sharkie and I headed to transition 1 with our bikes before it got dark.

Pizza was waiting for us when we got back to the house. As we were sitting there, I remember that I did not have any sandals to where from the finish dock for the swim to transition. It was about 400 yards on a crappy road surface. Snips and I jumped in the car at 7pm and went to look for shoes. Sounds easy? Ha. Tried several places with no luck. We finally ended up at the Family Dollar Store. No sandal. But I found an awesome pair of beige bath slippers with flowers in my size. When all else fails-improvise. Snips and I laughed all the way back to the house. What a picture this will make on race day.

Before I knew it, the time was 9pm. My family began reminding me it was time for bed. For some reason, I was reluctant to go to bed. Maybe the was some fear of what was to come in the morning ahead. I finally hit the sack around 10 wondering if I had done enough to prepare for 140.6 miles. I soon would find out.

Waddling into writing my race report..........