Boise Ironman 70.3: Pre-Race

So I signed up for this race last year October and it has been on the schedule ever since. This weekend, race day has arrived. The plan was to fly out Saturday morning, get all set up for the race, race on Sunday and fly back Sunday night. In total the trip would be about 39 hours of fun.
At 6:30 am Saturday morning my parents arrived at my house. We loaded up my car and headed to the airport. Our flight was at 7:40 am so we arrived about an hour early. I had my gels and GU2O powder in my carry on and was hoping this would not cause an issue when going through screening. I was through security in no time and was ready for the flight. At this point we met up with Sheena and Ali who were coming down to cheer us on. They were not going to race, they just wanted to come down and cheer on their fellow Tri-Fusion teammates. Thank you girls, it was a fun trip.

After our short flight down and quick stop at the rental car counter we were off to downtown for me to check-in to the race. About 2 weeks ago I wrote out a pretty details schedule because I thought I would be in a pretty tight time crunch only arriving a day before the race. I only gave my self 15 minutes to go through registration, opps. When I arrived the line was about 100 yards long and took over an hour of waiting before I got my packet. So much for the time schedule but checking went pretty smoothly and then we headed up to Lucky Peak Reservoir were the swim was located.
This is a unique race where the swim and T1 are located in a different location that T2 and the run course. After a slow stop for lunch at Wendy’s (I am not sure how they call it fast food) we headed up the canyon to T1. I was going to meet Steve Kramer who generously took my bike from Spokane to Boise which really helped out with the logistics of packing it and hauling it around Boise.
We arrived at the reservoir and were greeted by a ½ mile long climb up a gravel road from the bottom of the damn to the top. It was definitely a nice climb in the heat of Saturday afternoon. Swass and swalls were definitely an issue. After finally arriving at the top I found my bike and got it all ready for the race. After a quick trip down to the water for a temperature check (it felt pretty cold) we headed back down the hill to the car and drove the bike course.
The drive around the course really helped get me mentally prepared and after we finished I was really starting to feel ready for this race. It was not the most difficult course but it would involve me riding in aero for a ton of miles. There were really only 2 or 3 big hills to climb.
After we checked into our hotel, my parents and I headed downtown with Greg and Natalie to check in our run gear. The race officials gave us three bags for all our gear and for me this was definitely new and challenging making sure I have everything in the right place.
We then headed to Gino’s for dinner and were met by Sheena, Ali, Jay, Michelle, Matt, Jessie and Matt’s dad. Since we didn’t have any reservations they gave us til 7:00 pm sharp to eat and we had to be out the door. It turned out to be just enough time. It was great to enjoy some good food with everyone before the race and try to talk some strategy. I really feed off all the energy and this is one of the main reasons I enjoy the club so much.I finished off the day heading back to the room and making sure everything else was ready for the early wake-up time. I tried to get some sleep but was distracted by the MMA fights that were on TV. I know this isn’t the best pre-race sleep but I am always restless and it was nice to just lie in bed and relax. Finally falling asleep around 11:00 pm, I was feeling good about the task ahead.