OK enough trash talk about my experience getting here. Yeah I’m a spoiled product of the 21st century and I’ve had the roughing it bred out of me (or I’d like to say I’m the victim of the fact that there are 21st century travel agents booking into 19th century travel operations). However, today I sit here after breakfast on the eve of the big day and my mood is buoyant in anticipation for my 3rd Ironman.

View from my balcony to the ocean with cloudless, sunny skies
It is once again a beautiful morning over Florianopolis. The winds have picked up and it is choppy out there on the water. A bit chillier also, but under the sun it’s not bad. If the wind dies down just a little, it will be a glorious race day tomorrow. At breakfast I talk with some people who haven’t done an Ironman in a few years and also to some virgin Ironman racers. There is nervousness there, and I remember back 2 years ago at IM New Zealand when I was one of them. Yes it can be very daunting in the hours leading up to Ironman if you’ve never done it before. There is always some hesitance, some fear, but it all seems to disappear as you get moving on race day.
I will relax pretty much all day today and then mid-afternoon I will prepare my race bags and get them down to the transition areas, as well as my bike. Almost everything gets handed in to transition the day before so as to remove a possible mad rush to get all that stuff organized the morning of a race.
Back to watching the rest of the episodes of Season 1 of 30 Rock on my iPod….