Live from St George, its pre-race day

Ah, Ironman insomnia. Actually, this isn’t quite real insomnia since I just couldn’t get back to sleep during my nap. A on the other hand can’t sleep well at night, but is terrific at napping.

Folks, tomorrow is going to be tough. But, if the latest weather prediction holds (winds below 10 mph), it won’t be as bad as it would have been the last few days. The winds when we got here reminding me of the planned 6 hour ride to Rist Canyon that turned into an actual 7.25 hour ride about a month ago. At least the ride will be very scenic for however long it takes.

After the random intro, lets start with the swim.

The swim is out a Sand Hollow Reservoir. The single loop course starts in a protected area, but will get choppy with any significant winds. It is supposedly around 59 degrees so A and I keep flip flopping on wearing our neoprene caps. I’m usually better at CCW loops (due to my right sided breathing) and swimming has gone well so, I hope to break my streaks of 1:09 swims.

The bike starts with a ride back to town of ~22 miles. There were a couple of longer climbs that reminded me of riding around by Carter Lake. In town, you start the first of two laps. The laps start with some in suburb riding like at the Loveland Lake to Lake. It will be a bit congested, so patience will certainly be needed. After that section, we start climbing on the back highway roads. Some of the roads aren’t in too bad of shape, but most are pretty rough.

Oh, and there are 3 cattle guards that will likely be covered tomorrow, but have A freaking out. On our ride on Thursday morning, we turned around just after the first one when a cow got a bit testy as I tried to ride by and started running besides me and then cut in front of me when I slowed down. I was trying to picture how to explain to everyone that I didn’t race because I got run over by a cow.

The climb is pretty varied with some small descents to some bigger hills. Nothing too crazy though. (Say, like Rist Canyon on a windy day). At the pie shop, you get onto a must nicer road, but still have to climb for a bit.

At the volcano (hopefully dormant tomorrow), you get to go down. Coast back to town and do it all again.

The scenery on the bike varies from old black lava fields, snowy white mountain vistas, green valleys, and red rocks. We’ll put up some of the pictures from the drive the other day.

Then the run. There are a couple of billboards promoting energy conservation on the bike (two of them are exactly the same about 200 meter apart). Good thing to remember on the bike since the run will be brutal. I’m actually looking forward to it since it will favor the skinny little runners over the big bad bikers. I may not qualify as being in the first category anymore, but I certainly don’t fit in the second. And it isn’t just the climbing that will be difficult, the descents are going to cramp many quads. I think my heartrate went up 10 bpm just writing the last paragraph. Pace will mean very little, just keeping the feet going and catching the person in front of you (assuming you aren’t leading).

The trip back to the hotel is going to be rough as well. Not as long from the finish to the Tiki Shores in Canada, but all uphill here.

All that for another t-shirt.

Peace out,
E