Race prep

Don't let all of the adventure picture deceive you, Jeremy and I really traveled across the world to race.  Scattered around all of our outings we had race business to take care of.  This is all of the additional gear we need when we race.  Not pictured are our normal suitcases that hold normal clothes, and our small backpacks that carried our airplane stuff.  We are quite the site when we tromp through airports.  

Athlete check-in is always very exciting because then the butterflies start.  The race seems real.  Every athlete we see, we have a tendency to size them up.  Are they in our age bracket?  How fast do they look?  Don't worry, we'll beat them come Saturday.  This was our first international race and this map was really fun seeing where everyone came from. 

 

There are M-Dot signs everywhere.  The girls gave us Fern to take with us on this trip so Jeremy snapped a picture with her in front of the IMNZ sign.  

Without kids our schedule is a lot more flexible, so we took part in some of the race festivities they offered.  I went on a run with some other Women for Tri ladies, including Laura Siddall, a pro who has taken second at this race quite a few times and has some other wins to her name.  After the run we went to a Women for Tri breakfast.  We ate some fantastic food while listening to a pro panel that included Sam Warriner (Bradley), Julie Moss, Laura Siddall, and Jocelyn McCauley.  It is so much easier for me to put a name to faces when I hear their stories.  The emcee asked simple questions, "Why do you tri?" "What do you do when the race gets hard?" "How do you balance life and training?" "What do you eat race morning?"  That kind of thing.  I felt so uplifted by the whole event.  Here are other women who can make things happen.  Other women who try to be good moms, good triathletes, and keep their life in balance.  I was especially impressed by Jocelyn because she's LDS.  She won IMNZ last year.  I went up afterwards to introduce myself to the ladies and broke down in tears!  It was incredibly embarrassing because I couldn't even talk to them.  I just felt so inspired.  

When Jeremy picked me up afterwards he totally teased me for my tears.  It was awesome.  Ready to race!