This morning the crew got up and made some t-shirts to cheer us racers on:

Then we took our bikes and bags over to transition and left them there for the race tomorrow:

We then walked back to our car and saw some mooses (meese? what’s the plural of moose?) – apparently there is some kind of fascination with mooses here in Idaho. Somebody had a big sculpture of one on their porch. We also ducked into the Museum of North Idaho but only dropped into the gift shop where I bought a stuffed moose and a postcard that had the biggest darned potato I’ve ever seen. The museum was all about logging and forestry and what little we did see of the museum beyond the gift shop was a showcase of chain saws:

The last picture is of the finish line, still under construction and to be filled with screaming Ironman fans tomorrow…

The sun came out blazing this morning and Dan and I got up to prep our bikes for racing:

Here is Dan talking about his rocket Look bike:

I laid out all my bags and equipment. Looks like somehow I didn’t fit in a 4th water bottle for my run. I think that’s OK; I usually don’t drink all 4 of my bottles, especially if it’s a cool race:

All my race equipment in its lovely entirety!

Always must eat pasta to carbo load for the race and so we rolled down to the pasta dinner party. 15 minutes before and the line was snaking way out onto the street! Again the Trimaven boys were in full force:

Gatorade was everywhere on the tables and the food was decent. I piled on pasta and had a brownie to top it off. They showed inspirational Ironman videos while we ate. Mike Reilly was announcing to a full house:

At many of the races, they give out awards for the most weight lost during Ironman training for this particular race. These three lost more than 130-140 lbs. The big guy lost 150 lbs!!! That’s how much I weigh!

Here we are again, 2 days before our race and hoping that the weather will cooperate:

The video report live from the wet and wooly bike course:

As we got out further, it just rained even harder. We saw many cyclists out there – that must have really sucked.

When we got home, my wife modeled her new Ironman fleece lined jacket – very important for rainy and cool days watching her husband race!

After swimming, we were hungry and we went to find The Pita Pit, whose headquarters are here in Coeur d’Alene. How nice to find a place that serves a variety of foods all wrapped burrito style in a pita bread. I also met the owner of The Pita Pit, who is also the regional director for The Pita Pits all here in the Western states. I am proud to know this man, as he is brother-in-law to my buddy Lawrence who runs the Trimaven team.

Note the huge mobile home that The Pita Pit parties in. We unfortunately were not able to party in it.

This morning I woke again early to light streaming in the windows at 530a. I got up around 7am and Dan was already up. But as we were sitting there, he reading email and me eating cereal it starts to rain hard. Ugh we think – not good for Sunday if this keeps up. But a few minutes later, it stops. Our hopes rise.
Around 8am we grab our stuff and head out to the swim start to go try out the swim course. There we meet up with the Trimaven boys and the ever-present Ironman racer Keish, who shows up at almost every Ironman.
The waters of Coeur d’Alene Lake were very choppy. We went to get our wetsuits on and jumped into the water. The waves were high and annoying; they battered us head-on so that whenever we sighted, we would get a face full of water. The waves were so severe that when I would take a breath to the right, I would sometimes see a mountain of water crest and fly over my head as I ran into a wave. As we get out and get undressed, we met a lot of SF triathletes who are also racing this coming weekend.

The last picture is of my beautiful photographer wife.

Today we marveled at the fact that the sun rose at 5am! I woke up first at 530a because of it.
We went over to registration to get my registration bag and materials. It was windy out there and the lake was pretty choppy:

Here’s me in my brand new IM CDA kit:

Back to the expo to TriBike Transport to pick up bikes and make some signs:

Preparing my bike for a quick ride with the Trimaven boys:

Love those slow shutter speed shots – I can only wish I could ride so fast to be a blur!

Yesterday’s travel really sucked. Whenever it’s windy and/or foggy at SFO, the air traffic gets delayed by many hours. So we didn’t take off until 4pm (scheduled for 1240p). It was a short hop to Spokane and on/off raining when we got here. A quick 40 minute ride got us to Coeur d’Alene and then to our rental house. Not a bad place, a bit rustic but with all modern furnishings and appliances.
Feeling a bit stuffed up since yesterday. Not sure if it’s allergies or something else. It would really suck if it were something else like a cold. That’s what I don’t need right before the race!
Weather is variable – rainy yesterday, sunny today. Temps are fairly cool which is good. It’s a bit breezy but not so good. Will head over to the expo today and go shopping, also pick up my bike later today. Will probably go for a ride on the bike course and check it out, assuming I feel OK.

Just checked the weather again today at Coeur d’Alene Weather on Yahoo! Weather. Here’s a screenshot:

On Sunday June 21, cool temps 64 degrees high/45 degrees low – BONUS! Isolated T-storms – not so good, but better than thunderstorms and rain all day long.
If the temps stay cool, this could make for a great race for me, as I’m not a great hot weather racer. On the other hand, it could make for a chilly morning so I need to bring arm warmers, maybe even biking gloves so that my fingers don’t get numb. I once fumbled a gel packet on the bike because my fingers were so numb from riding in the cold at IM NZ, so none of that this year (I hope!).

I’m almost packed up and ready to go. Just a few more things I want to throw in my suitcases and hope it all fits. Thankfully, TriBike Transport has my bike and some bike gear so my bags aren’t as full as normal.
I have some anticipation but not as much this year as in years past. Maybe I’m becoming a veteran and I don’t get all worked up anymore? Or maybe I’m just distracted by all this travel I’m going to have in such a short amount of time.
I’ve never been to Coeur d’Alene before. Who knows what I’ll find there, which is why I’m bringing a lot of stuff – you never know once you move to certain parts of the US whether or not they have stuff that you can get in the larger metro areas – brands of suntan lotion, equipment, etc.
Heading out soon….