Pre-Race Day

Jan went for a practice swim at 8:30am in the Ohio River. That helped calm her nerves a bit. She also heard voices during the swim, "just breathe, calm down, you can do this". Yup, Eileen was channeling thoughts to Jan's brain. Strange how women can do that.

My favorite part of the day, a great buffet at the hotel! Hey, I wasn't racing, I could eat anything and as much as I wanted! This was great. I heard a voice, "eat this, try that, eat more, c'mon if you eat it, I will". Yup, Mike W. was channeling his voice into my head. Good thing I wasn't wearing a belt. What the hell is Mike's voice in my head for?

Amanda and I went for a run, to the start of the swim and back. It was her lucky day, as she got a great laugh seeing her her father search desperately for a port-a-john. There were plenty available at the transition area, except all locked! Who would do such a thing? Finally found one that was open. Who's idea was it to eat a buffet before running?

Jan went for a short run. Jan went for a short bike ride. Jan crashed her bike. This wasn't good. She survived with some nice road rashes and a few cuts. The bike was okay.

Jan spent the afternoon packing the blue bag, red bag, green bags, checking her bike. Unpacking the bags. Repacking the bags. Checking her bike. It was really quite exciting.

Finally we all walk to transition area to drop off the bike. The clouds were moving in, you know, those big, black, dark ones that shoot lightning bolts down. Only Jan could go in the transition area, while Amanda, Renee, Andrea and I all watched. The bikes, wow, this was high tech and mucho money. As the clouds opened up on us, we scurried under the interstate overpass near the river and hid. We were able to walk back to the hotel without getting wet. It was amazing.

Dinner. What a great word. Hey, I wasn't racing tomorrow. I could eat and drink anything. This was a great trip. We walked around and finally ended up at TGIF near the finish line area of Fourth Street Live. What a great section of the city. Why can't Rochester have this? It would be like having Main st. closed from the Hyatt Hotel/convention center area to the Four corners. Lots of restaurants, hotels nearby, events happening all the time. What a fantastic finish area. Ah, who wants people downtown.

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