We arrived safe and sound here in Coeur d'Alene today. It is gorgeous here, just spanktastic! It's woodsy, but warm and sunny. There is some wind, meh. There is some chop on the lake, meh. It's all just very exciting, not meh! Last night I picked up my packet, muy bueno bueno. I am now sporting my handy dandy Ironman bracelet with #2172. I have been having an unusual amount of twitter fun this trip. I was planning to swim this morning and after some tweets back and forth I ended up meeting NYCe. If you are a triathlete on twitter I'm sure you follow her, she is a studette runner and sports a fancy alpaca as her avatar. She is ADORABLE, seriously, you all are missing out by her not having a real picture of herself as her avatar. We also met up with PunkRockRunner. I totally love this dude. He is a riot and anyone that can make friends with Troy in like 2 minutes is a keeper in my book. His store with Punk Rock Racing gear is so wicked awesome, you gotta check it out.

Here we are after our swim.

Now, speaking of the swim. Wowzer. There is some chop and the water is cold. But it's only the kind of cold that takes several minutes to warm into. Then it's fine, you just need to get numb. I went with two caps and ear plugs and warmed up just fine, but those with neoprene caps will be happy to have them for sure. The chop just makes things Grrr. I'm fine with the chop, adds an element of adversity, which I enjoy.

After the swim I went for a ride on my bike. I had taken it yesterday to Jim at CycleMetrics. I can not say enough good things about Jim. I have a confession. I didn't blog about it when it happened, so I will fess up now. When I was in CDA training 5 weeks back, I was putting my bike together and I made the stupid mistake of breaking off my allen wrentch inside one of my headset bolts. I felt so lame, and knowing how bike shop workers make you feel when you bring in your bike after having done something stupid to it, well, I was nervous.

LUCKILY, I had emailed Heather Wurtele for some CDA course tips...'cause, you know, shes WON the race before (long stroy of how I even posses this stud chicks email, but the short story is that SHE IS AWESOME, many thanks to HEATHER for a million different little things) and she told me about Jim.

I LOVE JIM. He doesn't make you feel stupid, he is so nice and friendly, and he fixed my bike 5 weeks ago. Not only that, he also ordered a new stem for me since I have taken on and off those bolts many times and well....it was time.

So, I hiked (not literally...Chuckie, stop having a heart attack) the bike over to Jim yesterday, he replaced the stem, fixed a few things on my tires and made my bike happier than it's been in about 6 months. Happy bike. Happy Sonja.

Todays ride confirmed that fact. My bike is so super duper ready to go! After a short ride, where I got passed buy just about everyone out there riding (typical, just wait until Sunday, muh-ah-hah-hah) I found Troy and Annie at the playground. They have a giant playground here and Annie is loving the vacation. I'm so glad our whole family came this time.

We headed out to lunch and then stopped by the expo to watch Michael Lovato (team Trakkers stud PRO) at the PRO pannel. He was funny, as usual. This girl standing next to me was wearing a Trakkers hat. I was like "Oh my god, where did you get your Trakkers hat"?. ANOTHER long story short, she is "smellycents" on twitter and she is a HOOT! I laughed and laughed and laughed in her presence. He real name is Shelly.

Whew, what a day so far. Lots of fun for sure. Too much fun for Annie and Troy as they are sacked out napping!

So, how am I feeling? Well, many things but the main one is "ready". It feels like it's been so long since I've had a long training day that I miss it. I miss spending all day moving my body. I'm glad I am at that point because that will help me find my smile out there on the course Sunday. It's important for me to be in a place where I can smile and enjoy because I race better, and I have more fun. So that's always the first goal.

Second my body feels quite good. There really isn't more to say on that front. I hired the best coach on the planet that I could find. I did everything he told me to do. I communicated often and well, as did he. Really, if I'm not sitting pretty right now, I don't know who is. There has been nothing left to worry. All the "i"s have been dotted and the "t"s have ben crossed.

So, how can you follow what's going on Sunday? Well, those of you that followed along during the 100 miler via twitter (and many of you did) you are going to get the same sort of twitter-cast for the Ironman. Yes, folks, that's right, my MAMA is gonna be here tweeting all day. And a HUGE THANKS to Goal0 (go ahead, check them out) because there will be no lapses while my mom recharges the iPhone. Nope, we've hooked her up with a Sherpa 50 so she can plug in, run around, and charge the iphone on the go. Wicked awesome!

"So, Sonja, I'm not on twitter, what do I do?"

Well, friends. It's easy. Just keep refreshing this link to my twitter feed. You'll get all the updates (photos too) there.

There is also the Ironman.com website. They have trakking and will update after I go over the timing mats. But, I bet cha, my mom on twitter will be better! Go Mom!

I plan to post one more blog tomorrow before the race, and then it's go time. Huge thanks to all you out there. The well wishes have kept me smiling all day. And an even HUGER thanks to Goal0. They have HOOKED me up primo. We've got a Sherpa 50 and we even have the Nomad 27 Solar Panels to charge that bad boy on the go! YIP!