IMCdA Race Week - Thursday

It's sinking in now.

The day started off with a 4am crash of thunder, followed by heavy rain and more thunder.  I was able to go back to sleep until the next natural alarm clock at 6am with another enormous thunder clap and showers.  We waited out the weather by drinking coffee and lazing around.

Thankfully things cleared up enough for the 8am practice swim at Lake Coeur d'Alene with a few of the Beginner Triathlete crew.  Fine group of peeps!

The official USGS water gauge temperature said 59 degrees, someone with a thermometer got 61 degrees.  HOORAY!!!!!!  (But by the time of this blog posting has dropped again to 55 degrees.  Booooo!)  Due to the storm blowing through, the lake was pretty roughed up and choppy.  As waves crashed on the shore, we hopped in and swam to one of the buoys and back.  Not so bad.  Fun, actually!  It felt like the ocean, but without the salt.  So some of us headed back out for another lap.  20 minutes of swim time, about 30 minutes in the water, and not frozen.

Here is Mom and I by The Moose after the swim.  Apparently it poured and hailed while we were swimming, so she ended up getting just as wet as I did.

After a quick walk back to the house for dry clothes, we headed back to the Ironman Village to wait in the never ended registration line.

Once through, it went something like this (each at a separate station, sometimes with more lines): lodging form, verify ID and USAT card, pick up waivers and listen to spiel on medical stuff, fill out waivers, turn in waivers, show ID and get wrist band, show ID and get cap/numbers/timing chip, get tote bag with race day bags, swipe timing chip, prepay for race photos, get free goggles.

Done! 

We headed back to the house, kicked up our feet for awhile, and then headed back to Spokane to pick up my little brother JoshyPoo from the airport.  After a 25 minute easy run around town, the rest of the night was spent eating, playing games, and getting race bags ready.

Next Up: another practice swim, drive bike course, pick up Ken from airport, lounge in compression gear while getting everything ready for race day, welcome dinner, athlete briefing