Less than 24 hours to go
Karen and I made it to St. Pete safely yesterday. Took us a little longer than it should have, because 3 miles after we got on 275, all traffic was at a complete standstill. Lots of emergency vehicles on the northbound lanes. Next thing you know, here comes Lifeflight. An Explorer wiped out and rolled through the median. Everyone was out of their cars walking around and watching the rescue. After Lifeflight took off, southbound traffic started moving again. Folks in the northbound lanes were backed up for miles.
We checked into our hotel. We had heard very good things about The Pier Hotel. It really is a charming 'historic' place. Nice breakfast spread in the morning and a happy hour in the evening, plus free high-speed Internet. It's about a mile away from the race venue, so very convienent.
After settling in and checking on the girls, we walked down to the Pier for dinner. VERY windy outside. The sun had set and the water was dark and choppy. Oh boy. I don't need to be psyching myself out. Especially with the rumor that wetsuits won't be needed. Sunday, I just need to remember to get in a rhythmn and stay steady in the swim and let it rip on the bike and the run.
Today, we slept in, grabbed some breakfast downstairs, and walked over to the race expo. Lots of folks running and biking, and saw some that had just gotten out of the water. It is still very windy, and the water is really choppy. Bought some fancy new sunglasses for the race tomorrow and won a drawing for a Zoot cap. Good thing, because Karen's hair was blowing in her face and she was commenting that she needed one. Also stopped by the massage tent for a quick lower back massage. I woke up this morning with some soreness down there. Not sure if it was the hotel bed or not. I was told that I have a lot of tightness around my hips and down into my IT band. I need to stretch more! I know I do, I just never do it. Need to add that as a bigger part of my training regime.
Back to the hotel for some final bike tweaking and then back to the venue for registration and bike check-in. Karen is going to grab a nap.
Almost time!