Race Day Morning

Aug 17, 2014 | My Iron Year, Training Daze

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Lynne Tapper

I am a lifelong endurance athlete with the dual goal of training and racing until my bones turn to dust and sharing that passion with as many people as possible.

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.

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