It's almost race time!

Team group photo. Go USA! 

It's Saturday, and I don't have as much of a schedule today, but still a lot of time in the bus. 

The jet lag is still here. I get to bed early each night but my body still thinks it is afternoon and treats it like a nap, so at 2 in the morning i am unable to sleep any longer.

My wave Sunday China time at 7:05 am. Which will be 7:05 pm Saturday night Eastern time for you. Send positive vibes please! 

 

Well, my bike is racked, my bag of race stuff is ready to go. Just a quick blog update, stretch, visualization time and bed. These blogs have become very therapeutic for me. In this one, I am going to write about my goals. You may or may not end up reading it or understanding it, but the therapy I get from it is worth typing it out ...

The grandstand and dam area.

 

Swim, 1500 meters

Well, some of you saw my excitement on Facebook last week that we would be able to use a wetsuit ... not so much. There was a lot of bad info sent out by USAT, and this is one of them. The water was never 68 degrees. Its been about 77 all week. If it is more than 76 degrees 3 hours before race time - no wet suit. Todays weather was only a high in the 50's and a bad pouring down rain all day. Very cold day, so although I'm not expecting it,  it would be nice if it made the water go down a degree. So keep your fingers crossed as you go through your saturday (and I sleep) that when I wake the temp will be 75. 

The reason this is huge for me - I am not the best swimmer and I am much slower without the wetsuit. But regardless, either way it is done, I am ready to swim 110% and give it my all!

My goals: If I can wear a wetsuit i would like to just see under 30 minutes. If none, sub 32. We shall see. Pressure on since I am putting my goals on paper (editor's note: Paper? More like pixels!) not just for me to see but for all!

 

Bike, 26 miles

Paranoia - as most of you know i have when it comes to the bike. Will I get a flat, will the bike fall a part. Weird paranoia yes. Well, yesterday, my bike had a flat. Ahhhh! So the paranoia went up a couple notches. Mechanics took care of it and looked at the other one to make sure all looked good. Keep your fingers crossed!

The course has some long hills. I would say it is not a hilly course but not a fast course either. And the type that will tire your legs for the run. The course is 3 loops so that spectators can see you A LOT.

Goal is 1:06 (close to 23 mph, give or take). But if the roads are as wet as they are now, that may not happen. The people in the race that took place this morning said the wet roads were extremely slick and they had to use the brakes lots on the many winding roads the course has. But, if roads are bad condition, everyone has to deal with that.

I wonder if i will see that camel again on the ride??

 

Run, 10k

The run course is 4 loops. Spectators Course! It has 4 good size hills. It is actually only 1 hill that you have to run 4 times. :-)

Goals here: Well, before I pulled my calf muscle I wanted to come here and break 40 minutes for a tri 10k (a little more than 2 minutes slower than an all out 10k for me, but would be my fastest in a tri.) But since I had to take a run break for most the summer, my goal is to just run what I did last year. I will be very happy with high 40 to 41 minutes. Very thankful really when you think about it. Thankful that I am able to run ...

Bike transition area

 

Transition - the transition is HUGE!!! Not just the bike area but the time you have to run from swim to your bike and bike to the run. It is going to feel like a 5k to get to my bike after the swim. LOL. So due to the transition area, everyone is saying not quite a PR course. And this time, I agree!

 

So, I usually have my goals all layed out for me and I usually share them with many people. But being all the way in China, I don't have that chance, so you all get to read about it. But regardless of how i do tomorrow, I will be happy to just cross the finish line at a world championship race. I do hope to not come in last place as that really is a possibility in an event like this, especially due to my swim time. 

But if I do, I will still be on cloud 9, this experience has been unbelievable and any obstacle that may still lay in my way I will take in stride and use it as a learning experience!

 

So here I go. Tomorrow I will represent many things - USA, SAUCONY, Western Maryland, and wonderfully - Females in their upper 30s.