IMSG - Pre race

* Just a quick note - this will be long and detailed. I want to remember everything!*

We left Wednesday afternoon and proceeded to make the 4 hour drive to St George in 7 hours. Total blizzard for 75% of the drive. Dark barren roads with no overhead lights + headlights on a car = reflective snow which means visibility is at a zero. We spent our drive behind semi trucks when we could find them, and looking out our side windows other time watching the lines on the road. It was not fun. Thankfully our kids were great! We finally rolled in at midnight and stayed with my great friend Sylvia.

Thursday we headed to the Ironman expo and got all checked in. It's a very official, secured procedure that even my family couldn't join me for.

First up was signing my life away....er, uh, I mean signing more release forms.

Then came the blue security wristband that would be a part of me for the weekend (and still is actually, I'm not ready for it all to be over)

Then the timing chip

Checked out the Ironman store a little then headed to a practice swim with Polly and Mike

Don't let the happy faces fool you, we were still dry at this point :) Getting in the water was cold and I must have stood there chest deep questioning what in the world I was going to do in 2 days. This was freezing. It was actually ok once we got going, but I was never super comfortable and was nervous for 2.4 miles of that cold. The winds and waves picked up heading back into shore which only added a few more nerves.
I wanted to do a short post swim ride but just couldn't warm up. I had been fighting a head/chest cold since early in the week, so decided it smarter to heal than to ride. I was so nervous how I was going to be comfortable on the bike after such a long swim, almost nothing worse than shivering on a bike going 20+mph.

Thursday evening was the pre-race meeting and athlete dinner. Decent food, fun friends, and lots of info about race day getting me more pumped and nervous. I did not sleep well that night. Was up for 1.5 hours coughing badly before I finally fell asleep.

Friday morning was a ride from Sand Hollow. I wanted to practice the first couple hills so just went out and rode easy. It felt nice. That ride is also where I decided against using the front aero wheel I had planned on using. There was just too much push from the winds and I would rather feel confident and in control and in aero, than nervous and out of aero all the time. So glad I decided to bring both sets of wheels down.

Got back and went on a short 15 minute run while my twin sister Stephanie rode her bike next to me. It was SO great having her there! She flew in from Michigan just to come to this race. I felt good on the run and would've loved to run longer than I did.

The rest of the day was so busy, and I will probably do a few things differently in the future so I can spend more down time plotting and planning and thinking like here.
But anyway, she and I stopped at the expo center where the PowerTri boys worked on my bike (thanks guys!!), I got body marked, and felt rushed and stressed about everything left to do.

Next we headed to Sand Hollow to get my bike all checked into transition, along with the T1 bag. Look at all those bikes and bags!


I was hoping for a swim, but yeah, it was crazy windy yet again and time was short. I hooked up with Heath to borrow a neoprene swim cap and we were on our way to T2. Dropped off that bag and headed back to the great house we stayed in for dinner. Packed everyone up yet again and headed back into town for the Ironman kids race. My Mckayla and Talmage did the 1 mile with daddy and I ran the 200 yard run with our newly 2 year old Kaitlyn.

They had a great time and although I was getting tired and my ITBand was tired of all the activity, I'm glad we went.

Finally time to head home for the night and settle down. I had to pack my 3 remaining bags (they gave us a morning clothes bag, swim to bike bag, bike special needs bag, bike to run bag, and run special needs bag, it made me giddy seeing all those bags when I checked in). Also had to put extra things in I had forgotten for the T1 and T2 bags. SO much detail going over and over what should go in the bags and making sure it's all there. Next time I definitely need to start sooner. Finally to bed by 11:00pm, and thankfully slept well.

Race Day post next.