In approximately 12 hours I will be beginning the Ironman, the celebration of the last 9 months of hard work I have been put in. Confession: I am horrible at planning. Several people have their race mapped out minute by minute - what they are going to eat to get the exact carb/calorie/protein combination, the turns of the course they plan to go harder and ease off, etc etc etc. I have no such plan. I have a general idea of what I am going to eat - salt tabs on the 30/00s, gels on the 15s, and solids on the 45s. However, I completely am expecting to throw that out the window at some point in the day. My "special needs" bags (the ones you get halfway through the bike and through the run) are filled with a random assortment of things I might want: pickles (snack packs!), goldfish, snickers, V8 (never had before), flat coke (despite giving soda up 2+ years ago), and then the standard gels. Despite this total lack of a real "plan" in place, I am actually feeling pretty good right now. I am not as nervous as I would expect - I am completely confident I have the right fitness level. I am just going to take the day as it comes and enjoy it (while hating it desperately at some points).
This last 72 hours has been great. Thursday started off with me arriving at work to find a BEAUTIFUL bouqet of flowers on my desk and a sweet card from all my coworkers. They have had to listen to me talk NON-STOP about this adventure so I really appreciated the gesture. I left work at 3:30ish, with my coworkers gathering around staring awkwardly as they bid me farewell. I headed to the airport and found out my flight was delayed. I passed the time by talking to a random passenger (who was a little too quick to divulge his life story) and a fellow team member who I was driving from Milwaukee to Madison.
I finally arrived at the hotel Thursday night and found out they would have breakfast out starting at 4am tomorrow! SUCH a relief. Friday morning, I met up with the team early to go register. We signed a giant liability waiver, got our chip/etc, and a kick-ass transistion bag to carry our stuff in. Then we walked around the expo, grabbed lunch, and I had a few hours to relax, which I used to watch tennis and go to the grocery store. A fun fact I learned is that stores prefer when you have your wallet to pay for things. Upon learning this I rushed to the hotel and back to prevent my frozen foods from becoming unfrozen.
As I am committed to soaking up the full Ironman experience, I went to the athlete's banquet and briefing. It was a little short on inspirational stories, but it was still a fun event to see. The pasta was delicious!
When I got back to the hotel, my parents had arrived with my gear and bike and I started organizing. This morning, I met up with the team to do one final pre-Ironman workout - a 10/10/10 swim/bike/run workout. Short and sweet. The water is awesome - perfect temperature and calm. But man, am I TIRED! After a lazy afternoon, I checked in my transition bags (after racking the bike after the workout), where I got tape a 30 second "ad" for chocolate milk (as a wonderful recovery beverage) which will hopefully result in the endorsement deal I have dreaming about. Then we went to the Team Z dinner where my parents got their first taste of what the team is all about. As soon as I finish this, I am doing some last minute prep and heading to bed. 3:45am wake up tomorrow!
Overall, I am just feeling overwhelmed by all the love and support that has come my way from friends/family/coworkers. It has been an awesome journey and I am excited for tomorrow.
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