About 1 week to go...

...the hay is in the barn, the work is done. Time to stay loose, and let the last 6 months of training sink in...and then race April 13th. People ask me if I'm ready, or nervous, or scared, or excited. Actually, I don't know if I'm READY...I'll let you know about 9 hours into the race! I'm not really nervous or scared, just ready to get the race started. It's such a long time to focus on a single event, and there are two things that I'm scared of...one, some sort of mechanical/flat on the bike...and the BIG one...catching a cold before the race! I've turned into a germaphobe...seriously, don't touch me! All it takes to wreck 6 months of build up is a common cold. But, other than that...I'm looking forward to seeing what happens.

There are so many things that you have to bring and remember. It is worse than traveling to a bike race, by far. You have to bring gear for 3 different sports (for training and racing), have your nutrition plan dialed in, make all the travel arrangements...and oh yeah, race 140.6 miles. I have a 10 page list that has an equipment checklist, which transition bag everything goes in, an itinerary of what I'm doing when I'm there...and don't even get me started on my list for the day before and during the event! It still boggles my mind that Kevin Neal did 5 of these in 1 year!

I fly out on Tuesday morning, and will try to update the blog while in AZ. The hotel is supposed to have internet connections in the room, so I'll see if I can upload some pictures, etc.