Countdown - 3 days to go

Thursday, and I'm a little worried, to tell you the truth. I really haven't been worrying about the race at all. There're no bitten nails, no moments of anxiety, no tears. Instead, I've been calmly doing what needs to be done and relaxing as much as possible.

Today started off with one loop of the swim course. It was my first time swimming with the wetsuit on since the accident, so I was interested in how that would go. The swim went well - there were times when I felt like I was soaring. My friend Martine hung with me for the first half and only took off when she saw that I was OK. What a sweetie. My arm definitely was fatigued and I'm still feeling it several hours later, but I know I'll make it. I completed the loop in 42 minutes, so I'll try to slow down a little so I don't collapse on the second loop. I guess if I tire, I can just hang onto one of the buoys, eh?

Then registration where I signed about three dozen waivers, got weighed (they'll use this to check whether I need an IV for rehydration at the end of the race) and received several different colored bags into which I'll pack my stuff for transition and special needs (more on that later). I met up with Holly (left) at both the lake and registration. This is Holly's first Ironman too.

I had a couple of sneak prayer attacks today. The first was the woman who weighed me in. She said "Good luck, and I'll be praying for you." Whaaaa? Then the next chap who gave me all my stuff and explained how it was all going to work, said "I'd like to pray for you. Would you like me to pray for you?" I said "Well, I don't really believe in prayer, but you can think really really hard if you like." I guess that was enough encouragement, so he wrote down my name on a card for later. Oh well. He may think that "God will give me strength" but personally I think that the strength will come from days like cycling 80 miles of furnace hills in Culpeper, running 16 icy miles on Skyline Drive or swimming 25 yards three weeks after breaking my elbow. That's where my strength will come from. And seeing all my training mates out on the course and remembering their amazing journeys of injury, breakups, job losses and moments of sheer despair. And seeing my family cheering for me, knowing how far they've come to be here. And knowing that my friends back home or traveling are thinking about me at that moment and sending me their strength.

Speaking of family, my uncle and cousin have been giving me grief about my race plan which starts on Saturday, with "Paint nails." They obviously just don't get the importance of looking good during an Ironman.

You can see the empty transition area in this photo. Now, imagine it chocka with bikes. I'll post more photos on Saturday after our bikes are racked.

In the afternoon, we drove the bike course where we found this inspirational sign and enjoyed a root beer float. My friend Scott said I could have three root beer floats, so look for further reports on that front.

When we went to be at 10pm, I turned to Mark and said "Do you realize that on Sunday at this time, I'll still be running?" G'night.