Saturday, July 19, 2008

The Calm Before the Storm

There are officially 12 hours and 20 minutes before my wave of the IronGirl Triathlon begins. 3 months of preparation, sweat, blood (bike chains are vicious) and some happy tears during our pre-race dinner last night.

The question everyone has been asking me today...How do you feel?

I feel ready, or I should say I feel like there is nothing more I can do. I have trained hard, worked hard, played hard, and hydrated hard. There is nothing left to do than to put it in God's hands, and have faith.

Aw, come on! You are feeling something besides inner peace...it's your first triathlon! I know that's what some of you are thinking. Honestly though, I am a procrastinating pro...and like all things I am procrastinating on giving into nerves. Tomorrow morning I am going to have entire flocks of butterflies ricocheting off my insides. (Do butterflies fly in flocks? I will have to look that up later). Tonight is about prep, and rest.

I do want to add a random list of things that I know are going to make me nervous/queasy/jittery/OCD tomorrow morning.

  1. My wave has the pro triathletes in it. I thought this was a cruel joke on the rest of us, but then I realized it is probably more of a cruel joke on them. At least I have a cute light blue swim cap...seriously who wants to wear yellow swim cap?!?!? No thank you.
  2. I haven't practiced drying my feet off during the transition when I move from swim to bike. What if I forget?? What if I end up running feeling like my socks are made out of sand paper because my feet were covered in post swim concrete grime??
  3. I haven't practiced putting my shot bloks in my jersey before the biking...oh I am not kidding anyone...I am going to practice this one a couple of times tonight.
  4. What if I forget my bike...this one is courtesy of Leona.
  5. What if I fall off my bike trying to dismount (It's happened, totally legit)
  6. What if I have to pee during the bike or run...I don't want to lose 15 min waiting in line at the port-o-potties!
  7. There is only one water stop during the run in Texas, July heat. The heat index tomorrow is 89 degrees. When you run you add 20 degrees to get a feel for what the heat is going to be like. So my body is going to feel like it is 109 degrees outside...and there is one water stop.
  8. I have never ran with water before and the gospel of racing is never try something new during race day. But it is gonna be HOT...
  9. What if the pink wrist band the little old lady gave me at sign in and told me to guard with my life because it is the only way they are going to let me race, falls off somewhere in the next 12 hours. Seriously...3 months of training rest on one little pink wrist band...that is a lot of pressure.
To continue with my MO of procrastinating on stress, I cleaned my kitchen, took out my trash and blogged. Then I am going to put on one of my fav training songs and beginning packing THE bag which will hold all my gear...and maybe...just maybe get a little sleep before the big day tomorrow.

Happy racing everyone and all my love to my IronGirls!!!

1 comments:

Stephanie said...

I dont know why I even bother blogging, your blogs are like 100 times better than mine!! From now on, every post on my blog will be- read Lanie's blog today =)