Pre-race preparations

In retrospect...

Weds morning we flew out to CdA and settled into the house. A housemate was delayed in arriving, but otherwise we all came in safely and forgetting nothing major.

SWIM 1.2mi in about 40-45 mins
Thursday morning was our first practice swim and athlete check-in. The lake was smooth, calm, but COLD--an estimated 57-58F. I've never been in such cold water, except maybe in a waist deep tub of water for an ice bath. I had only the wetsuit and my new skull cap, no booties. I smeared my waxy sunscreen on my face, bodyglide on my neck and chin, then toe'd the water. YIKES! But not as bad as I thought it could be. I waded in slowly, happy that I was finally able to see just how bad the water really was after weeks and months of wondering. My feet and hands quickly went numb leaving only my face and neck to suffer. They burned, a painful burn that faded after 5 minutes or so. I was swimming in it! WOW!  It wasn't quite as bad as expected, but that's not to say it was pleasant. Although my exposed skin numbed, my skin under the suit was slowly losing heat. By the time I was nearly finished, my left pinkie stopped functioning and I was shivery. But I climbed out OK, warmed up, and was happy to know I was going to be able to do this!

Athlete check-in was slick and fun. The volunteers were helpful and knowledgeable, a trend that continued all weekend. Thursday night, we had a late trip to the airport for another housemate. The late night was OK, Friday night was the crucial sleep night. As for how I was feeling? Excited but not over-exuberant yet. I was too tired!

SWIM 0.6-0.7mi in ??
Friday morning was the 2nd practice swim and my last chance to test the waters. My goal for this swim was not to get a workout in, but to see if my body reacted the same way and to finally convince myself I could do this. Again, a cold sheet of calm waters. We waded in behind a mass start practice, and again my hands, feet, and face reacted slowly but surely to numbness. And again my left and and body reacted poorly. This left me worried--if I got too cold in 30-40 mins, what would happen in 90-100 minutes?! The bikes arrived so we picked them up and rode them to the house, only 3-4 miles so I'm not logging that as a workout. We rested the remainder of the day. It felt like were were always coming or going, it felt this way all weekend until we dedicated ourselves to peace and calm on Saturday.

REST!
Saturday was a rest day. We just had to ride the bikes back to the site, set up our gear bags, and go home to rest. My gear packing was easy, in fact it seemed too easy! I had my note cards and plenty of advance thinking. Really the last things to decide were which flavors of gels I wanted where. Saturday night sleep was good, I just wanted to get this thing started!

How was I feeling pre-race? Calm. Ready. I kept having thoughts about some disaster occurring, a bike crash or something unavoidable that would ruin the race. But I dealt with this OK, I just knew that I would do everything I could to avoid it--what more could I do? I was calm about it, it was just a recurring thought. 

I was worried about the swim--how I would stay warm. But there was nothing I could do about that either. I just had to do it!