Tomorrow I will step on the line (errr, float in the water) for my first triathlon of the year, and my first race entering the elite amateur category. To say, for several reasons, that I have some healthy nerves would be to state the obvious. Olympic distance racing always hurts whether you are in shape or not! Racing in the Elite amateur category is something I have always shied away from since my swim was in a different ball park as most elite amateurs. This year, I said, yes, I'm going for it. And going for it at the Rev3 races, where my Team Trakkers is racing as well, feels like a safe and supportive place to do so.

The race is going to be so fun. If you are here in Knoxville you can come down to Worlds Fair Park and watch the entire race unfold on a huge Jumbotron, and then see the finishers come through the chute. If you are spectating from abroad, you can watch the live coverage HERE on competator.com

Also, you can watch the Trakkers showcase! Tomorrow will be the live Trakkers debut. I have my devise, its charged up and ready to go. The devices aren't waterproof yet, so my devise will start trakking and will sit in transition while I swim. When I get on the bike you should see my green dot moving. Michelle and Kathleen (Kathleen is the current Kona amateur record holder) are also wearing devises and are in my elite amateur wave, so be sure to watch and cheer for them as well! The link to watch can be found by clicking HERE, or you can go to http://live.trakkersgps.com/events.aspx

You'll want to click on "Rev3 Knoxville Olympic" to see me.

Lastly, you can follow twitter where Troy will be tweeting it as he sees it. Follow @gosonja on twitter, or click here to see my feed.

Today has been a blast. We had a great photoshoot this morning featuring the very famous photographer....my dad! He did such a good job and we had a lot of fun too.

Then we were off for a run with some teamates. We ran down to transition and around to the swim start. We loosened up the legs and FordyFord and I got in a few pickups.

Off on the bikes, Michelle, Jamie and I went went and rode a little bit of the course including a really rough section that we were nervous about seeing it on the drive. It's as bad as we thought and I'm glad that I got a preview.

Back to the expo we met back up with all our Team Trakkers crew and we had so much fun giving away lots of free First Endurance goodies. People were so excited and it was great to hear so many people say "This stuff works". No Duh! That's why we use it!

I caught sight of Julie Dibens. I really dig her, and she is killing it on the pro scene recently. She was so nice to take a quick snap shot with me.

After the giveaway we headed out to the water for a swimy-swim. There were lots of cool parts to the swim but some of the highlights were hearing a talk from Pip Taylor and Heather Golnick about how to swim the swim.

Another highlight was that our Trakkers swimsuits came in so when you looked around the swim deck there were lots of teamies and you could recognize them easily. So much so that Mary Beth Ellis came over and asked to borrow a swim cap. She is on the Trakkers Elite team and I think of us as the age-group minor leaguers. Knowing that she could turn to any of us AGers for help made me feel good. It's nice to feel like you have a family out at the races.

Hopefully our Pro team will come to understand that we age groupers totally dig them and are always willing to lend a helping hand, whether it be at a race, or if they are racing in our hometowns. We are a big network of people who love this sport. In return our pro team has been so awesome about reaching out to us age groupers. Every one of them has stopped by at some point to meet us, wish us good luck and answer any questions. Here is Dede Griesbauer coming by to say hello.

The swim was a total hoot! The dingy water was actually really nice. I even tasted it and I was impressed. Apparently the only reason it's dingy is because of the recent storms, and it's actually a really nice river to swim in (so we were told, and I would agree at this point). Beth, Michelle B and I paused at the first buoy for a photo op!

There are no words to explain this photo, pure happy!

Finally after the swim, a little lunch, and a little Trakkers booth time, Michelle and I headed back to our respective hotels to nap, blog, and rest our feet. This evening we will drop our bikes in transition, grab some grub, and hit the hay...it's ALMOST RACE DAY!

Team Terrier Tri Club is going DOWN (as is Dynamo Multisport)