Packing AGAIN! Oh how I get so worked up about packing - 5 race bags - seriously??!?!
Some of the items in my race bags are just a given, but other things - like the 'special needs bike bag' and the 'special needs run bag' - that I might get back, and I might NOT get back, I have to guess what I might be feeling at that point, and what I might want in the bag to help combat a sore stomach or being too cold, or maybe too hot, or sore, or hungry, or . . . . this is a recipe for disaster! Yikes!
I went for a 20 minute swim today in the ocean - the waves were still pretty big, but I felt like I got a little more rhythm out there, and it felt good.
We had the athlete's dinner and race meeting tonight. Duane got a ticket and came with me which was good. The meal was a carb loading dinner - which for someone who is super careful about gluten - it is a bit of a joke. Pasta Salad, vegetarian lasagna, cooked beans, salad, linguini, chicken and marinara sauce, buns, butter, cookies, brownies, pudding, bananas, apples and oranges. I am glad I had a green smoothie late in the afternoon.
They wanted to know who had lost more than 50 pounds on their journey to ironman - Duane made me stand up, then they wanted to know 75 pounds - he wouldn't let me sit down, followed by the question of 80, 90, 100, 110, 120, 125 - there were just 2 of us left and he called us to the stage to tell our short story. I was completely out of my comfort zone - I thought I might throw up. I just made 2000 new friends. So many high 5's and congratulations the rest of the night. He asked what I had learned that I didn't know before - I replied with something like " that anything is possible, and that I wanted to change the future for my family, and now we are here - and that we are all in this together". At least that is how I remember it - maybe I said something completely different. I don't know.
I will have to add some pictures later - maybe tomorrow - I have got to go to bed - that was an exhausting day for me! I am an introvert you know! Sigh.
