Day 2 – Saturday
If you missed Ironman Canada Race Review – Day 1 Click here to read it
After sleeping in until about 8am we stumbled down to breakfast where I was happy to find hard boiled eggs, oatmeal, and fruit. It’s really awesome when a hotel “gets it” and serves good food.
After breakfast I went out for my last taper workout, which was an easy 15 minute run followed by a short bike ride. The ride was to make sure everything on the bike was still functioning correctly before I had to drop it off in the transition area.
It was already hot out, but everything felt amazing!
Once the short workout was completed, it was time for the dreaded leg shaving! After getting lots of advice from my awesome Facebook and Twitter friends, I was up for the challenge. I had used hair cutting clippers two days earlier, to make sure the leg hair was short enough to be shaved. So, I lathered in hair conditioner and went to town! It went pretty smoothly; I only cut myself once on the back of my upper calf. Getting all of the hairs shaved is actually harder than I thought it would be, and I had to go over several areas multiple times.
After about 20 minutes of shaving I had most of the hair gone and was good to go! With my silky smooth legs rocking, I loaded up my transition and special needs bags with my essentials: one peanut butter and honey sandwich on whole wheat bread in every bag; and a bottle or two of Hammer Perpetuem.
With my bags ready, it was time to drive back to drop off my bike, “swim to bike” and “bike to run” transition bags. These had to be dropped off at the race start and transition areas on Saturday by 4pm. (My special needs bags for the bike and run could be dropped off on Sunday morning.)
We drove to the race start, and I hauled my bike and transition bags to their appropriate areas.
I was one of the last bikes on the bike rack and it was actually difficult to fit my bike between the other bikes on the rack. I think I even pissed off another racer because I had to reposition his bike so I could get mine on the rack.
For the transition bags, you just had to find your number in the row of bags, and set your bags on the ground. Easy breezy!
With everything turned in, we walked over to a meeting place near the registration tent where we were meeting our friends. (I really never realized how much I rely on my phone for simple communication until I couldn’t use it.) I had an awesome crew of friends that were coming up to hangout at the race, and I even got to meet one of my good Facebook friends (Meg) who I had never met in person! Meg and I had been Facebook friends for some time, and it was awesome to get to meet up with her. She was in town as a volunteer for the race and gave me some priceless information about what to expect on race day from her experience doing the race. She was also going to be my personal “catcher” at the finish line, which was awesome!
I can’t say enough about how much I appreciate that all of my friends and family came up for the race! Mom, Dad, Brian, Maggie, Harte, Matt, Kristina, Tara, Blaine–you are all amazing friends! Thank you!
It actually took a few hours to get everyone in the same place and moving in the same direction, but once that happened, we went out for some Mexican food. Fajitas sounded fantastic, so I rolled with it. I can’t say they were the best fajitas I’d every eaten, but they got the job done! The restaurant location was great (looked out on to the lake) and the company was outstanding.
For the night before the race, I was staying with my friend, Jenny, who was also racing. She had rented a house near the race start. After dinner we cruised over to Jenny’s place and my parents dropped me off. I double-checked to make sure that I had everything that I needed for the race, posted up my air bed in the living room, and tried to get some sleep before the 4am wake up call. I never know how I’ll sleep the night before a race; it’s always different.
I actually slept better than I usually sleep the night before my races, and was feeling pretty good when the 4am alarm sounded. I love sleeping on Aero air beds! I stumbled into the kitchen to start the fueling process for the day ahead….
Stay tuned for the third and final Ironman Canada blog post coming in the next 7-10 days. Click here to jump right to Day 3 THE RACE
