Locked and Loaded

While I am busy packing my IM bags, and sorting out all the last minute details (what details?) these two are living the life of luxury. Yes, we have a hammock in our living room. A lot of the locals do the hammock thing here, when we walk through the town in the evening and look into open doors you can see living rooms full of people swinging around in the them and socializing.

I think this has been the most relaxing Ironman ever for Troy and Annie. They know they have a big day ahead of them tomorrow and they are resting up for it too. Luckily our place is 4 blocks (short little tiny blocks) to the run course, and 1 block to the bike course. Unfortunately it's about 4-5 miles  to the swim start. They will have an early morning getting out there to watch and then getting back home via taxi. However, after that, they can use the house as home base and things should be rather easy for the rest of the day.

I dropped my bike today at T1. On the way there I got a great view of the swim course from the northern most turn buoy.

It was a zoo to check in at 11. It was supposed to be #0-200 but there were all sorts of people there who wanted their bikes to win the "first in T1" award. I think I won the 1st one OUT of T1 award. It took me like 8 minutes to drop my stuff and get out of there. I had no desire to linger.

My bike should have a nice day in transition. It's right next to a palapa and the beautiful ocean. I though about racking her the other way so she had a good view, but I thought that would just confuse the volunteers.

I keep the transition bags simple. It is so hot and humid here that I don't think it's advisable to leave nutrition in the bike and run bags. So for me in the bike bag is helmet, sunglasses and race number. They let you leave your shoes on the bike here. Then in the run bag goes shoes, socks, hat, and Garmin strap. That's it! Oh, except I tape a replacement set of 1 day contacts to the inside of my bike bag in case I loose them in the swim.

Transition is a total maze here. Check out all the carpets going every which way. I love it. My spot is super duper easy to get to, and I've got that palapa to look for too that my bike is in front of. The place was very well numbered and I don't think people will have too much trouble getting to their bike as long as they keep their wits about them.

I am posting this picture as a reminder to myself. I keep having this "thought" (think panic session) that I put my bike stuff in my run bag and my run stuff in my bike bag. This photos proves to me that my helmet is in there and this is my bike bag. I think it's because I don't have PIC with me here that I keep second guessing things. Usually we keep an eye out for each other and provide that listening ear for the "panic comments."

Usually:

Sonja: "Did I put my helmet in my bike bag or my run bag"

Michelle: "Bike bag, you are fine"

Now:

Sonja: "Did I put my helmet in my bike bag or my run bag"

Sonja: "crap, I don't remember, did I do it right, I think I did it right, wait what if I didn't, should I go back and check, that's $20 in taxi fees, no you did it right, I think you did it right, omg what if I didn't do it right, my race would be over, could I find and extra helmet in T1, no they wouldn't let you, I would be screwed, I'm sure you did it right, gah I hope I did"

This dude decided to tape the gels on today. All I can say is he is going to have some fiery hot gels tomorrow! Squishy! And I say "he" because we found out last night that of the 2,325 participants, just under 500 of them are women. THAT'S IT! Ladies!!! If we want more Kona slots, and need more female racers!

Speaking of Kona slots it was really funny to hear a story from Kacie about her and her husband George going to the bank yesterday to pull money in case they both get slots. Even though Ironman said on it's site that you can pay in pesos or US dollars (it must be cash, no check, no visa, no travelers check, nothing except $750 us cash) at the race meeting they said pesos weren't allowed and they would only take dollars. So Kacie and George went to the bank, had to pull out pesos, then had to go exchange them into US dollars, then they RAN RAN RAN all the way to their hotel as fast as they could. They said if they don't get slots they are going to use the $1500 to pay their mortgage. Hahahahaha!

I'm all checked in, and I'm laying in bed for the rest of the day. The water bottles are in the freezer, the special needs bags are packed, the red kit is laying out and ready for wearing. I'm all set and ready to go.

We found gnocchi and pancetta at the store and Troy just made me a big bowl of it. It's a good carbalicious, yet gluten free (not that I need that) meal with some protein. To make it just sauté some pancetta until it's crunchy, you can add garlic too if you like. Then dump in a can of diced tomatoes and let those simmer with the pancetta for awhile. You can put in kale or spinach here too, but we are in Mexico, so no lechuga for me. Lastly dump in those gnocchi that have been boiled for about 3 minutes. Wha Lah. 3-5 ingredients, perfect away from home pre race meal. It's not vegan, but it will have to do for today! Thank you Troy!

And now it's feet up in bed the rest of the day. Of course, a few of you are waiting for some schedules, so I will work on those as well.

Happy racing to all of you who are on the island this weekend. Great job to all those racing Ultraman this weekend in Hawaii. Thank you to my sponsors for what has already been a fantastic year. Thank you to Chuckie, for getting me through "the double" and to my family for their awesomeness. Let's hope I can end this season with a bang.