More Pre-race

The car all packed up and ready to go. I love being able to easily put the bike in the car.

Beautiful Salt River Canyon

We arrived and this started

Beautiful conditions on the lake race morning

Setting up transition

warming up for the swim

5:00am alarm on Sunday morning for a 7:00am race start. Why start at 7:00? Ugh. I didn't sleep well despite (because?) I went to bed at 8:30.
At 5:00am, feeling restless and tired, I wasn't hungry but put down my race day breakfast that has really been working well for me: muscle milk shake, banana, cup of oatmeal, and a granola bar immediately upon waking up. I follow this with a red bull in transition about 45min before the start. I forgo any caffeine in the days before a race.
We packed up the car and made the short drive to Fools Hollow park. The conditions on race morning were calm and cool. I was feeling a little more anxious than usual as I hadn't seen any of the bike or run course and heard the water was cold and the bike course was wet and muddy. Saturday night I ran out to the store and bought some PAM spray for coating the bike. I learned this back in TN so I gave the bike a good spray in the parking lot Sunday morning before heading to setup transition.
I got caught up with Tri Diva and her CoachHubby in the parking lot and briefly in transition. No cell phone service in Show Low meant we missed them more than once :(. It is always good to see them! BTW - They Killed it on Sunday!!!
I got in the water for a quick swim, no real warmup only feeling how cold the water was. Those of us trying to get a good position started at the end of the dock treading water before the start and that's where the race report follows...