The night before Kona

Just a quick update.

All's well in Kona. The winds look to be low, the skies to be overcast. While I'm happy with the expected conditions and they are good for me, I'd rather have it be hotter. Not quite a good for me, but a lot worse for everyone else. Hey, this is a race right?

I checked my bike in today and being a 'local' was fun. I saw so many people I knew and trained with. My volunteer asked if I was a pro since so many people knew me. I laughed. Yep, I had my own volunteer to walk me through the bike check in and bag drop. They explained everything. My bike location isn't the best, but the gear bags are right on the end of the racks. For those who have done NAS IMs, you know that long row of bags on the ground that are sort of in order? Well, at Kona, there are racks for the bags to hang. There are numbered hooks for each bag. No searching necessary.

Yesterday Dierdre and I went to the ST meet up. She scored a free full length blue seventy speed suit. I snagged it this AM for a swim. Fits great and I'll be sporting it tomorrow. Should get 30 seconds faster in the swim with a full length suit on.

I'm all ready to go, just going to fix some dinner and do a bit of stretching, then shower and sunscreen up and plan on being asleep by 9:30. I don't usually have a problem sleeping before races, so hopefully I won't again tonight.

Tomorrow I plan on being up at 4:30 and out of the condo by 5:15. I figure arriving at the race site at 5:30 will be plenty of time for my socializing, body marking, socializing, dropping off special needs bags, socializing, inflating the tires on my bike, socializing, warm up swim, and socializing.

Here's the race outfit, the hat is already checked in, but it's from Erika's site.


If anyone is watching the coverage (or here in person) and see's this shirt (there will be over a hundred out there), chances are they are family/friends of a Boca teammate. Raul Boca is my coach and has sponsored me this year. My support crew will be wearing them. One or two of them want to cross everyone off the list but me. I've told them it's not very sportsman like, but if they cross people off as they cross the finish line (before me), I totally support them in saying they were just keeping track of the finishers.

And, that's a dolphin on the side of the shirt.