I got back to the hotel room at 5:30 am. Right on schedule. I got changed into my tri bottoms, bra and tri top. I lathered myself up with Chamois Butter and Body Glide and sunscreen. I put on my wetsuit just to the waist. I wore a cotton long-sleeved top to keep me warm for the walk to the start.
Leland, Sofie, Eli and I met my parents and Peter in the lobby of the hotel at 5:55 am. Everyone was ready to head to the swim start. Eli was limping a little because he ran the Family 5k on Friday. It was a very cool race. All the participants ran across the same finish line I would be crossing many, many hours later. Since he hasn’t been running much this summer and he pushed himself a bit, he finished in 29:40, his calves and quads were a bit sore for a few days.
At first, I was a bit anxious at walking so slowly, so I walked ahead. But then I realized that there were so many people heading to the start, that we were not going to miss anything. The poor kid was a trooper. He woke up at 5:30 am and was in pain just walking so he could see his mother start the swim of her first Ironman.
We got to the start a minute or so before they sang the Canadian National Anthem. About 10 minutes after that, the PRO men started their swim. Just a bit before 7:00 am, my wave was called into the corral. There was a minute or so before we were scheduled to start, so I got into the water, adjusted my goggles and got back into line. The water temp was perfect. I was getting excited! It’s finally happening…