Thursday, November 19, 2009

On Your Mark...Get Set....REGISTER

Busy day today but it's been a good day. My training partner started her day as she usually does, Dunkin Donuts nearby for coffee. We ate a light breakfast and headed down to the village. I had an opportunity to check out the swim start and finish. It sure does look like a L-O-N-G swim. Training buddies blew algae out of their noses from what we heard. Won't that be fun???We heard lots of folks complaining about how cold it was; however, we also heard it was 64 degrees which isn't far off the temp we've been swimming in at Lake Murray. I will get to check it out tomorrow morning as we're swimming at 8am.

After checking out the swim start/finish and finding our names on the bike racks in Transition (PHOTO OP), we headed over to pick up our bikes. They weren't quite ready so we opted to get in line for registration. I was the FIRST person in line for registrationat Ironman Arizona 2009. That doesn't get me any award or a time advantage but it sure did take away some of my stress. Kind of cool if you ask me, too. Alison, Midge and I were the top three in line. We had an opportunity to talk with others that were doing the event also. One was doing it for the first time whereas his coach was on number 30...wow! Seriously, I would have to find a different hobby I think and a much higher paying job. No problems in the tent for registration which was overall relatively smooth. And, thankfully, they don't make you weigh anymore! Alison and Sheila hit a snag when their packets were incomplete. This had to be a bit anxiety provoking but they are back on track now as the 2700's were finally given over to their rightful owners.

Next, off to get Buzz and gear bag....Buzz was easy to spot. Sitting patiently awaiting my arrival. I could sense Buzz itching a little bit to go for a spin but that will come soon enough. My gear bag...nowhere in sight. I went up and down the line 3 times. Panic set in on my face as I lifted bag after bag - no bag. After several moments of pacing start to end, I found it! It had fallen off the end of the line and was under the banner. Geez...that will definitely get your heart rate up! Pedals back on the bike, computer checked and gear bag in tow. Smooth sailing after that. We grabbed a quick bite to eat for lunch after meeting up with some of our buddies and off we went to check out the bike and run courses. (We had lunch at "The Library"...little did we know that this restaraunt was likely a bad spinoff of Hooters with the waitresses scantily clad in their "HIT ME BABY ONE MORE TIME" Brittany Spears outfits. We're obviously not locals. I, later, would find my own matching outfit at Target which I modeled and I'm sure will result in a blackmail photo circulating around...it was all fun and games until I was told I had to have cleavage to be hired. Still unemployed...LOL)

We drove the bike course and I couldn't help but cheese a bit...exceptionally flat except for a slow incline for the last miles of the out portion of the course. Winds weren't whipping it but they weren't calm either. Saw a few riding the course with flat tires. Temps are perfect out here right now. I think this will be a great race temp for me so from that perspective, I am set. Foot still tender but could be worse, right? Tonight has been spent resting and we'll head to dinner shortly.

On a side note, it's really rather desolate and sad if you ask me. There won't be a lot of "eye candy" to look at on the bike or the run. Lots of tall cactuses. Dry, pebbly land for miles and miles. The reservation out here is REALLY sad and very poor. Totally not what I was expecting!

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