Wildflower - Arrival Day

May 1, 2009 -

Got up around 4:45a in order to get to the airport for my 6:50a flight to San Jose today. Borrowed a sweet travel bike box from a buddy and ended up getting it on the plane for free when it was supposed to be a $50 charge....sweet. First success of the day was an on time flight and the bikes made it in one piece.

From there picked up a rental car and headed south about two and a half hours. This triathlon is truly in the middle of nowhere. Once we exited from the highway it was another 40 mile drive on a narrow, two-lane road with nothing around. Finally, we get to the camping area, pay ($70 per night), and found the rest of our peeps.

This place is so overwhelming, I have never seen a place like it. 7,000 campers, this massive transition area and outdoor expo and millions and millions of dollars worth of tri gear.

After getting the bikes setup and the tent organized we headed to get our race bags. Little did I know it was about a two mile walk to this place from our campsite, but I guess that's just what you do here. Oh yeah, and it has been raining all day with a gradual increase in rain as the day has passed. I'm ok with this, hopin it moves through tonight for an overcast but dry race day tomorrow.

We picked up our race bags, walked the expo, got some swag and then I went for a quick swim. Hiked up the 'ol wetsuit and hopped in the the lake. It's a little cold on your face and ears, but the rest the body was great. I swam about 500 yards and called it good. There is this murky algae stuff in the water that is pretty gnarly, but whatever. Two mile walk back to camp after that.

Plans tonight include eating, hydrating, stretching....repeat. Then maybe, read a little to realx the nerves and just chill before maybe a 10p bedtime??? We plan to be up at 5a tomorrow to get working and my wave start is at 8:25a.

Day 121 Training Log - Tomorrow should be an interesting day, I feel confident but everyone just keeps going off about how tough those hills are. I saw the first hill today "beach hill" which is a grade virtually right out of transition. It was a steep hill up about a half mile or so. It looks to be about as tough as a hill as I have trained on this season and that is supposed to be the easy one!