Two more days until the "Beast"

We made it to St. Croix on Wednesday...along with all our luggage! So, I figure that we're way ahead of the game...since a lot of folks bags ended up in San Juan.

Unfortunately, during my packing I forgot to bring my USB cord for my camera. When I return I'll post the pictures from the trip.

I did the whole swim course yesterday and it was really cool...I could see the bottom almost the entire time! Although it was pretty choppy at the furthest point, and a couple jelly fish stings, it was a pretty good swim. Another plus is that swimming in salt water makes you more buoyant...nice! The picture to the left is of the island we start from, and the area where we do our swim to the right.

I also had a chance to meet Joe Bonness, he was very nice...and taller than I thought! Here's a Slowtwitch article about him. If you don't know about him, he's an Ironman legend...you can google him to find out more.

I rode some of the course...and it was windy and hot! Oh, and there are a few hills ;-) I also ran the part of the course that goes through The Buccaneer and besides being hot, there was a tough hill...and we do the loop twice. Shawn described the hills as "...it will get your attention...", I think at that point in the race it will do more than that! Anyhow, I'm pretty shocked by the run splits of the top guys in my age group from last year...this is a VERY slow course, so I'm really impressed...and hope they don't go that fast this year :-) The picture to the left shows part of the run course on The Buccaneer...you can see the path along the water, we run on that...nice view!

Here's an article just posted on Ironman.com about the upcoming race.

That's all for now...

- Sween