Coach Liz's Amazing Triathlon Adventure: Day 1 at the Worlds-NEW RACE NUMBER 1102

Hey!

I am here in Clearwater, Florida. I got here last night with Johnny Tri and Geoff. The townhouse that we are staying in is beautiful! there is a 2 car garage that has lots of space for our bikes.

There is an elevator to the upper levels which was great for us lazy triathletes and for taking our luggage up to our rooms. On the second floor is the living area and kitchen and one of the bedrooms. The third level has a master bed and bath, another room and the laundry. On the roof there is a hot tub and the view is great. We are located only a short distance away from the race venue. We ran to the local Albertson's grocery to pick up stuff for breakfast and then it was off to bed for a good night's sleep.

I was up at 6:45 eastern time and the sun was up. I got up and started breakfast while the guys were still asleep. The smell of coffee, blueberry pancakes, and scrambled eggs got them moving to the kitchen. After breakfast, Geoff and I had thought about going to the open water swim practice but we decided to do the swim on Friday morning. We went to the beach-front area and took a look for the packet pick-up but instead we found one of the race expo tents! $112.32 later, I walked out with some cool stuff! I got a sweat jacket, a tech shirt, a water bottle, a car magnet with the M-Dot logo, a pair of socks, and a nifty visor. Geoff got two visors to replace his Triathlon magazine visor that is always attached to his head. Johnny Tri was acting as our driver and had dropped us off to look for a parking space. We called him back to pick us up because we needed to head to the airport to pick up David and Mitch. When he found out that we were shopping for cool SHWAG while he was keeping the car made him pretty cranky. LOL, we love you Johnny Tri!

We picked up David and Mitch and then headed to Packet Pick-Up. It all went smoothly except that Geoff forgot his photo ID.

We got our race packets, got wrist banded, weighed in, and were given our cool Ironman drawstring bag filled with goodies. Then it was another trip to the Race Shop. I spent another $612!!! OMG!!! Hey, you only get to the World Championships once if you are slow like me. Here is a breakdown of the goods: 1 Ironman beach towel, a cool 70.3 WC bike jacket, 70.3 WC tri top, 70.3 WC bike shorts (they were out of tri shorts in my size), a nice 70.3 WC run/casual jacket, a short sleeve tech shirt, a long sleeve tech shirt, a long sleeve tech run top, a few stickers for the bike case, some tattoos, and 2 CO2 cartridges.

DANG!!! It was totally worth it!!!

We had a late lunch and then took Geoff back to packet pick-up. Mitch had to go back to look into renting race wheels. His friend Erin was using his race wheels last week at Ironman Florida and she had a crash and cracked the front wheel rim. Kuota wanted both wheels to look at and told him not to use the wheels to race on in case the back wheel had damage as well. So after Geoff got his race packet, we took Mitch to the bike shop for wheels. Johnny Tri met us with Bigun and went to his pad to have dinner with him and Mrs. Bigun.

Geoff, David, and I went for a short 10-15 minute run down to the water and then got cleaned up for the athlete's Welcome banquet.

We took a short drive to Sand Key Park and were met with this awesome stage with a reggae band. It was like being at a beach concert. The food lines were short, the food was yummy, the music was good, and the following presentation was very inspiring and motivational.

The only thing that was a negative was the windy conditions that made the temps chilly. We headed back to the townhouse to give the hot tub a go, but it was really not as warm as we first thought. We only lasted a few minutes in the "cool" tub and then crawled out. I am waiting for the weather forecast, and then it is off to bed.