Spotsylvania, Virginia United States Set Up Events 70F / 21C Sunny

Total Time = 5h 21m 34s Overall Rank = 129/374 Age Group = M40-44 Age Group Rank = 25/66

We stayed at a cabin on the lake with our friends, absolutely beautiful. I got up Friday morning and did the western australian carb load routine I usually do. Short pickups ~4x running with 20-30 rest intervals, then start a carb load breakfast. Went to bed early, didn't really sleep much, unusual for me, I usually get mostly a good nights sleep. I set the alarm for 4:30am, but was worried since it was the rental clock, but didn't set my watch like I usually would, I'll come to regret that in the morning. I tossed an turned all night. I thought I looked at clock and it was 2am, but I the face of the clock wasn't facing my bed so I was just seeing the glow, without my glasses. Finally got up to "check" the time and it was an hour past the time I expected to get up, 5:30, jumped up, ran to eat something quick, banana, wheat mini bagel w/organic almond butter and coffee. Joe came out and said, he wasn't going to do the race, that he wasn't trained for it and didn't want to injure himself or be miserable on the run. I didn't coax him out of it, partially because I just did a race and injured myself when I should have back out and also I was so focused on being late I wasn't thinking about anything other than getting to the race, although I felt bad for him. He told me yesterday he was nervous about the swim, he didn't finish the swim last year, but they still let him do the bike and run courses. Put on my race clothes, shoes and got bike hydration from fridge/freezer. So I packed up my stuff and left, it was just a short 10 min drive. Got to park and had to bike from far lot again this year, this is why I wanted to get up early and get to race site so I wouldn't be put in this distance lot at the last minute again this year, oh well, at to take what I got today. Bike over to transition, set up bike, no towel, so just threw stuff on ground, felt totally unorganized and just worried about basics, set up nutrition. Ate a gel and slug of water preswim.

None, got up late and hustled to get to the race site, set up transition and get down to swim. Luckily the lake was fogged over and start was pushed back 15 minutes, this game just enough time to do everything to set up and not be panicked, although I was hustling, but was very efficient. I set my helmet on bike, then garmin and then I had a mind-blow when I my sunglasses weren't in the bag where I put them and it was supposed to be a very sunny day. I never found them, think they fell out of my transition bag (which has a hole in it), time to get a new transition bag. Then no transition towel, crap, left it at home and one in my bag at cottage. Then went to turn on my bike computer and it didn't work, battery must be dead, it was not registering cadence in last bike ride and thought about replacing battery but week went by too fast and didn't get to it. This happened to me at IMCDA too. I do have my garmin, it's just easier to watch the bike computer and I watch avg speed and cadence, then glance at garmin for avg hr to keep it all on track, so I can get avg speed from garmin, but not cadence, oh well, take what the day gives me. This is just a training day/prep race for IMLP, right... right, I mean absolutely, I'm not racing today, right! I got to swim and got myself fully wet and gun went off for first group. I was in the fourth wave, spaced 3 minutes apart. Lake looked perfect, fog lifted with 55 degree start, 78 high and sunny forecast, it was going to be a perfect weather day. Water was warmer than air and felt good until you got out of the water and waited for your group to go.