Race numbers just came out for the October 26 PPD Beach2Battleship race. Isn't it funny how excited we get for our race number? It makes it all legit!! Most people automatically try to find some meaning or inspiration among the digits. My bib number is actually the year my youngest was born - 2002 - so I like it a lot!
Getting our race number reminds me of this scene from "The Jerk" where Steve Martin gets soooo excited to see his name in print in the new phone book!!
I just started packing for this race, mainly because I need an outlet for the already growing "heebie-jeebies" of taper time. Packing for this race feels different from my usual sprints and olympics because (1) it's a point to point race with different T1 and T2 locations and (2) with a longer race, comfort becomes a little more important.
We check our bikes and T2 bags in the day before the race, and the T1 bag the day before or morning of. We'll all be watching the weather forecast closely to fine-tune what goes in those bags (mainly T1) depending on expected temperature and precipitation. Come on 10-day forecast....show me what ya got!
Now I'm down to one workout a day and am trying something new - NO gym time, no strength training, for the two weeks prior to this race. My energy had gotten fairly low from a higher training volume on top of family/work life that seemed to have exploded to "11." I didn't need my limited energy further sub-divided and Coach Jim thought this was a good idea. I agreed to it, but it's hard not to feel a bit like a slacker. The upside is, I can definitely feel my energy rebounding, as it is supposed to do.
I'm starting to fret a bit about life post-race. It's a long time until the new triathlon season begins and all year I have had goals to focus on. After 4-1/2 years in the sport, and 43 races in the last four years, I know I need some real honest-to-goodness healthy "out-season" time this year to recharge my batteries, change things up, and work on weaknesses, but it's a little scary not to have a looming race goal, or spring marathon.
This is what the day-after-race-day, October 27, feels like to me....YIKES! Okay, and a little exciting too. But I'm getting a little ahead of myself. Right now I'm just looking forward to my second ever half iron and having some fun in Wilmington!
