Preparing for the Triathlon

I'm going to do this in three installments--because I want to remember all of it. What an amazing weekend. I'll have other triathlons. But none of them will be the first.

Let's start with the weekend before the race. Kyle and I wanted to do a pseudo-triathlon to make sure we could do it. We did the swim, drove home quickly and did our transition into the bike. But we had just gotten our bikes back from the shop. Mine had a clicking noise (later found out it was just in another gear). I stopped to check it out. Kyle stopped to see if I was okay and squeezed his newly tuned brakes--they were much tighter and his front wheel STOPPED and he flew over the handlebars and landed on the street--scrapped and bloody. Of course, he didn't go further, but after getting him settled with ice and pain relievers, I continued.

No problem with the ride, but by the time of the run, it had been 5 hours since I had eaten and it was the heat of noon. I couldn't do the whole run. I was spent. Done. Crap. It was then that I was worried about the race. Could I really do it?

But that week, I got a strong week of workouts. Two strong swims, some light strength training, and a couple good runs. After Thursday's swim, I was done. No more workouts till the race.

On Friday, I checked Kyle out of school early and we went to pick up our packets. They had a "webinar" on Wednesday where they went through the rules, how everything was going to work, etc. But they were also doing a course walk-through at 3pm on Friday and we wanted to see that. We asked all the silly questions like "how do you put the bike on the rail without a kickstand?" "how does the transponder work?" "are there alligators in the lake?" (the answer was yes!). But we got to see where we went in and out and got a strategy for the long walk between the lake and the transition area (Kyle's strategy--run barefoot; my strategy--give sandals to Robb).

The highlight of the day? Someone asked where the spectators could go. They said "Only athletes are allowed in the transition area." I looked at Kyle and whispered, "I think they just called us 'athletes.'" I've never been called an athlete. Excellent.

Carb loading at Macaroni Grill with the family and Kailey. Then early to bed with hopes of sleeping....