Let's Do This!

I've just come from the athlete's welcome banquet.  It was very inspiring.  A lot of great stories from people who lost weight to get here, the oldest competitor, the youngest competitors, people who've done a lot Ironmans before, and the fact that almost half the field are first timers.

It's been a crazy day.  There were a few last minute things I forgot and had to scramble around to get.  I discovered this morning that all of the food I was going to carry with me on the bike was bad and had to be remade.  This meant that I had find a rice cooker, get all of the ingredients,  and track down the specific type of rice I use in my rice cakes.  (I make the rice cakes from the Feed Zone Portables cookbook).  This caused some early morning panic, so I went for a run and cleared my head.  I came back feeling better and had a plan to deal with it.

After some intense searching, I found the rice as well as all of the other ingredients I needed.  I got the rice cakes made and made it to the Ironman village in time for the mandatory athlete's briefing.  I finally felt like I could relax.

I'm feeling good physically and mentally.  I've feel like I've finally gotten back to where I was before the bike wreck.  Every time I've stepped up in distance, I've been very nervous about the race.  I've wondered how I would perform.  I had a lot of angst about whether or not I would be able to do the distance.  Would I make the cutoff time?  Would I be able to finish?

This is the longest distance I've done, and yet I've never felt more prepared, more confident, more relaxed before a race than I do now.  Let's do this!