Ready to roll!

I think I'm living the good life here. Woke up early again without an alarm. Stayed in bed a while just resting then met the boys at 715a for a short swim in the lake. COLD! Maybe 65 degrees but I don't know. After the first few minutes, felt okay--cool temps will actually be nice for the long swim so we won't overheat but it'll take a bit of warmup to acclimate on raceday. The lake is impossibly clear but there's not much to see once you're a bit away from the beach--gets deep and dark down there.

Back to the room for a big breakfast and then an hour or so to get the bike and transition bags ready. Unlike most of the shorter races, we don't lay out our gear in transition. Instead, everything goes into bags--one for the swim to bike, one for extra nutrition along the bike course, one for the bike to run, and another for nutrition mid-way through the run. Not my first race like this, but it's a little more complicated than normal.

We headed to the transition area and bag drop relatively early with a goal of being back and off our feet by noon. As expected, the transition area is massive. Even though I've studied the map of athlete flow, I'll be relying on volunteers to direct me through tomorrow.

My ride--ready for action.

My roommate Joe finally made it in last night. He was supposed to travel with us but work got in the way. Happy to have the whole crew here, such as it is. We're missing our 6th man, Lenn, who got rear-ended a couple of weeks ago and isn't ready to race. We're all thinking of him while we're here.

765 feels like a lucky number.

Had a short run on the plan just to wake up the legs but I'm feeling good and decided to skip it. Yesterday's run was good and I want to end on that guaranteed good experience (since it's already happened.) Nothing I do now will make me faster tomorrow--it's only really what I don't do.

Kay, John, Bill, Joe, and Mike at the bag drop.

So for those of you who plan to follow me online at http://www.ironmanlive.com/ tomorrow, here's what you can expect (because it's what I expect). The site will show you my times per segment (I also think there will be splits) and my ranking at each point. I expect my swim rank will be very good--I plan to mix it up with the fast folks early in hopes of finding a nice group to draft off. Do not panic when my ranking drops precipitiously on the bike. I should come out of the water with several of the top overall finishers but I will not ultimately be one of them. I'll likely keep dropping in the ranking during the run since that's not my strong suit but the ranking isn't important.

I haven't set a time goal for the race, rather a set of intermediate process goals. If I execute well, the time will be good; if not, it won't be good. (Duh!) I just don't want to be worried about getting in on a specific time goal since that's an outcome I don't directly control. If I take care of what I can control, the number will be there.

The RockyMounts-IZZE Boys looking fresh at the finish line.

So in many ways, the race itself is the reward for all the hard work I've put in getting here. As my friend Jeffrey reminded me, the hay is in the barn. (If only there was more hay and the barn wasn't so big.) I'm calm and collected about racing--not nervous at all. My body will do what it can do tomorrow--hopefully that's something great. I just need to approach it with a clear head (which I have).

We'll cook up a simple meal and maybe crowd around a laptop to watch a movie and then hit the sack to try to get a few hours of sleep (if the butterflies don't hit too hard).

Again, thank you for the positive thoughts and encouragement tomorrow and all along the way. I could not have gotten here without the support of my family, friends, and colleagues. I can't possibly express how grateful I am for all of you. I'm ready to race and promise to make you proud.