Asher's pre-race jitters

[IronYeti]

- The story starts on Tuesday evening as I'm packing the night before my Wed a.m. departure. I thought I had everything thought out and all contingencies covered. Except for one. My power went out the second i started packing. That meant that all of my packing was done by candlelight. Very romantic. At least for the first thirty minutes. Then it was *grumble* *curse* *growl*. I forgot a few items since I didn't 'see' them. Oh well.

- Wednesday we drove for 11 hours, mostly through Canada. I think I heard a report that Canada was replacing their national flag with a Tim Hortons flag. Mostly uneventful drive, but once in New York we did see a guy sitting in a chair. In the middle of a pickup bed. While driving down the road.

- Thursday we biked the first 16 miles of the bike course. It's a few mile climb out of town, and then a scorching 9 mile descent. There wasn't any traffic so I got in my aero position and like Goose said in Top Gun, "It's time to kick the tires and light the fires!" I peaked at 46 miles per freaking hour. Only when I saw curves up ahead and vehicular speed limits at 35 mph did I grab onto the breaks. Oh, our friends drove us back up top - gotta save the legs for the big show, right?

- Friday we chilled. I spent the afternoon cleaning my bike; it's was the dirtiest I've ever seen it. All told I ended up replacing my pedals, my tires, my tubes, my bottle holders, disassembled and cleaned the rear and front cassettes, and installed a new chain.
Also, I had my special nutrition from InfiniteNutrition FedEx'd to our rental house (I forgot to order this before I left so I had to send it there). Well, after not seeing it I contacted FedEx, learned that it was delivered but still couldn't find it. I'm freaking out at this point because this is the only product I've trained with all season and it's custom made so I can't just go buy some at the Expo. I called FedEx and somehow managed to reach a human being thru those damn automated phone systems, and miraculously was able to talk with the delivery driver. Turns out he left it with a neighbor who said they'd 'bring it right up'. Not so much. So a friend and I started walking. We walked 1.5 miles down this dirt road where there turns out to be a Jesuit camp. They had it and Asher was very relieved.
That evening we went to the Inspiration Dinner and met up with all of the Detroit Iron crew. Part of the ceremonies included the biggest loser contest (two people each lost 125 lbs), the oldest racers (62 female and 73 male) and the most Ironman races (103! seriously, this guy needs a new hobby).

- Saturday we started packing to take our transition bags and bikes down. I'm trying to decide between two pairs of running shoes, each with very different orthodics (I have bad shin splints and have been only able to run 10 miles in the last two months). Most people have a running goal set in hours or pace - my running goal is to limit the severity of the shin splint injury I'm likely to cause myself, and I can't figure out which shoes to pick. So I flipped a coin.
After that I had to stop in town to get my bike check checked up because the rear derailleur wasn't working right and I didn't feel I could do it right myself. Well, the guy ended truing my rear wheel, adjusting both brakes, adjusting the front and rear derailleurs, adjusting my rear wheel drop outs, and tightening/tweaking a few other things. Wow! So a shout out goes to Elite Bicycles (they also helped us out at Ironman Florida). So after that all of our gear was checked in, went home fixed up our Special Needs bags and nutrition. I also started looking up shin splint taping techniques and borrowed some super strong tape (supposedly it can rip your skin off if you don't use an under wrap.) So I'll be trying this for the first time ever, after being taught by a YouTube video instead of a qualified doctor. Awesome.

- Sunday ???

And so here I am with exactly 12 hours to go before the cannon goes off and I start my third Ironman. My training is done (the hay is in the barn, as they say), my gear is packed, and my excuses are ready. I really have no idea how I will do in the race, but I've accomplished my primary goal, and that was to get to the start line with a smile on my face. As many of you know I had a traumatic hamstring injury two years ago and the doctors and my family all said I should accept my injury and give up these sports. But being active became a part of my life, and a part of who I was and who I wanted to be. After the surgery I still have some issues, but as I told my surgeon "I don't need to compete, but I do need to complete." Being out here with all of my friends and having the support of my friends that couldn't be here mean everything to me. So Lord willing I'll cross the finish line and hear "Asher Cornelius You Are An Ironman!" But if I don't you can bet your bottom dollar I'll be back sometime, somewhere to try again.

[IronYeti]

I finally had a few moments to clean my bike. So I added new tyres, tubes, chain and disassembled and cleaned the rear cassette and front cassette. Maybe not the ideal thing to do right before an Ironman.

Bike_cleaning3.jpg