It's 6:46 PM and I'm getting ready to go to bed. That sounds very AARP, but what can I say it's a long day tomorrow and I want to be rested. My day started today with a relaxed breakfast and a swim for 20 minutes in Tempe town lake. I swam one circuit of the available swim course out to the Ford sign and back. The water was cold, but will feel good once I'm a little ways into the race. The Firefighter was with me and then we helped each other hand out samples from our active ambassador sponsors. 140 samples of Wheaties Fuel have now found their way to my fellow competitors to help them taste the win tomorrow.
After all the Wheaties were handed out and the Firefighter handed out his Snickers marathon bars we took our bikes out on the road to test out our new wheels. We both put a Zipp 404 wheel on the front and 808's on the back to help get every last ounce of speed from our bikes for the 113 mile ride ahead. We only rode ten minutes to make sure the shifters were good and there was nothing to get fixed. Satisfied with our bikes headed back to the Hyatt showered up gathered our things and a few 6" subs later went to bike drop off. This was pretty relaxed after the anarchy that occurred earlier in the day. Kind of like the difference between the day after Thanksgiving versus a random Tuesday. A new part of the process this year they took pictures of all the bikes as they entered transition for security reasons.
Now things were set, bike in place, run and bike transition gear bags waiting for us to come running up yelling, our bid number. We strolled through the expo picking up some swag and trying to find deals. Turns out a 75% deal on a new X Lab Super Wing will help make my new Cannondale complete now when I pick it up on Monday, or Tuesday. This was all by 3 also about the time the Firefighter headed off with his own family (he was done being part of the Peele clan for one trip). Done with the expo I went back to the room to relax with the wife. I prepped all my nutrition for the race and off to Claim Jumper for a 4 PM dinner reservation. This sounds early, but I'm going to get up at 1 AM and 2 AM 1500 calories of breakfast. You have to give your body an opportunity to process before 12 hours of continuous exercise. Dinner was great, 12 of us there to hang out having fun joking about the craziness the Firefighter and I are going to participate in. One crazy bit of news that came out from dinner was that my wife wants to be an Iron woman hoping to participate in Ironman Arizona 2013 ( more to come on this story later). Here I am now typing away on my IPAD winding down before the storm that is tomorrow.
It's been a great weekend so far, the race weather is forecast to be 73 degrees for the high and a low of 54. The sun sets at 5:45 guaranteeing I'll finish in the dark. I'm not changing too much for this race, but coming in a little more relaxed. Last time I did one of these I had to fly to Albuquerque to work the next day, legs knotting up while sitting in place for hours at a time. This year I don't head out tell Wednesday allowing me to just focus on the task at hand. I hope that I can set a new PR, but mostly that it's a positive experience and that I can stick to just racing my race. I wish the best of luck to everyone in the field and hope all the Ironman virgins finish strong.
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