Pre-race jitters!

The triathlon was on Saturday. I drove up to Monterey on Thursday evening, checked into my lovely hotel room, and chilled out that evening.

Friday was full of business. The team met in the hotel lobby at 11am to bike the 2.5 miles to the event site. We met with Dave Scott (6 time Ironman Champion) who gave us last minute tips and support.

After the meeting it was time to get into our wetsuits and test out the Pacific Grove waters for the first time. It was COLD COLD COLD. My feet went numb and my hands were stinging from the cold. We "warmed up" in the water for 5 minutes and then set off for a swim of one loop of the course. The kelp was INSANE. It was sooo thick, I was literally crawling over it at points. It was draining and a little creepy. We eventually made our way out around the first buoy, only to discover a bunch of jellyfish swimming out there with us. I didn't mind as much as some of the other swimmers who began to panic a bit. On the way back in, I looked back to see how they were, only to discover a seal swimming with us about 30 feet behind. I was so excited. The two other girls were not as happy as me. I guess some people don't appreciate being close to nature. We were invading the animals' home, so from my point of view, we really didn't have any right to be upset.

After the swim, we went to the expo center to pick up our race packets. After a bit of searching, I found my race number. We each received timing chips which you wear around your angle during the race. We had to check these chips in by scanning them and making sure all the information that popped up on the computer was correct. It mistakenly had my age as 30 which I was very quick to correct that I still had another month in my 20s. The man behind the computer said "well, they do it based on the year of the race." I simply informed him that "for my mental health, I thought he should know that I wasn't 30 yet." He looked at me, confused, for a second or two before he laughed. Myla (one of our team's mentors) grabbed my arm and pulled me away before I could protest more.

After we were all situated with our race packets, we then biked one loop of the bike course (6 miles) before we biked the 2.5 miles back to our hotel. My mother and stepfather visited me in my room for a bit before I made my way over to our big pasta party where we were greeted by a line of people making so much noise with cowbells, new year's noisemakers, etc... that my head swayed. We had a lovely dinner, heard some very motivational people speak, and then took the time to recognize everyone's participation in raising $1.4 million for this triathlon alone.

I went back to the hotel, packed my triathlon bag for the next day, put all my race numbers on my bike and helmet and jersey. Then it was time to try to go to sleep... which eventually happened. Which is exactly what I need to do right now. I will post some pics and the race day tomorrow. (I know, I know, the suspense is KILLING you).