The alarm was set for 4:00 am. Leland kindly set his phone and sort of got up with me. I had a small bowl of cereal (Quaker Oat Squares and skim milk). The night before I had written a short list of things that I needed to accomplish to be ready for the race start. It was going to be so early and dark that I wanted to make sure I did and brought everything I needed to the transition and also to the race start.
Here is the list:
-Bring fuel (gels, gel blocks, nut punches and enduralytes)
-Bring 2 chilled water bottles (one water, one PowerBar Perform)
-Bring pump to pump tires
-Bring towel and chain lube to dry bike and re-lube chain after sitting in the rain all night!
-Wear t-shirt and sweatpants to transition
-Turn on Garmin bike computer and calibrate power to be ready for bike start
-Return to hotel
-Change into tri clothes
-Meet family in the lobby to walk to swim start at 6:00 am!
Sofie joined me in transition. She documented what everything looked like in the dark and kept me company.
When I found my bike, I took off the huge plastic bag covering my bike. I found a wall on the side of transition, dried my bike, wiped my chain, re-lubed my chain, and pumped my tires. A fellow triathlete asked to borrow my pump. I knew that would happen and it was totally fine. It was good to chat with someone. This was also her first Iron-distance triathlon.
I then turned on my Garmin bike computer and calibrated the power. It always take a few minutes to work and it the waiting part made me a tad anxious. I just looked around at the vast transition and breathed. Yay! It calibrated properly. I then put my bike back onto the transition rack. I took a selfie, but it was so dark that I’m don’t think it came out well. I was going to ask someone to take a photo of me, but everyone was so focused on getting their “stuff” together that I didn’t want to bother anyone. I headed out of transition and found Sofie. As we started to walk balk to the Cabriolet, I had another short panic attack. What if my bike tires went flat right after I pumped them? It could happen. I could have done something when I pumped the tires. Better safe than sorry. So, I told Sofie I was going back to check the tires. When I got back to transition, everything was fine! Of course.
The weather was dry, cloudy and not too chilly! So far, so good.