Mad Manatees 2015.3 CLOSED (or Poptarts? Pet pics?) (Page 56)

See, I told you I was not a very good stand in for Janyne!   Sorry Mary and Monica.

The worst part is that I had dropped Mary a line about her race earlier this week. I have a few tools that I would suggest for you Mary. Really for anyone:

1. Prepare the night before.  I believe this is on the list that Janyne has shared in the past, but it will make your race morning much less stressful. Have everything packed that can be packed and a sticky note on the door that says "water bottle in refridgerator" or some such note so you remember that as well.
2. After you are all set up in transition, do some transition recon. The RD may have provided a race map, but familiarize yourself anyway. Check the swim in, the bike out, the bike in and the run out. It is a simple 5 minute task and may end up saving you time and aggravation during the race, because...
3. Step away from everyone for a few minutes and visualize the race.  I picked this one up from a really good AG racer that I have a lot of respect for (thank you Rusty).  Don't see the perfect race that you want to run, but the race that you have trained for.  See yourself coming out of the water, smoothly getting out of the wetsuit and heading to transition 1.  See yourself getting ready to bike.  See yourself mounting the bike smoothly and getting up to speed.  See yourself getting water from the aid stations on the run.  See all that you will need to do in the race.  It helps, more than you might think.

Then there is the "Don't List":

1. Do not fret over the uncontrolables.  You can't control them, so don't worry about them.  That is energy that can be expended elsewhere.
2. Do not compare yourself or your equipment to others.  You are you.  Mirinda is Mirinda. 
3. Do not lose sight of why you do this, who you are, or how far you have come. This is your race!

Do not ask how I have such a list, experience is a wonderful and occasionally mean teacher 

Above all, smile often, thank a volunteer, and have a blast!!!

I am now an Oscar Fan!!! Keep us in the loop with how things are going, please.

And take care of yourself as well.

Thanks for the reminders, Chris.  I've already been visualizing and will tape the key bike points to my bike so I don't have to try to remember them. I'm also only talking positively about the race to people rather than focusing on any worries I might have.  The more positive stuff I say, the more I'll internalize that.  Just read another BTer's post about the bike section.  He just drove it recently and hasn't ridden it and is now intimidated.  It definitely pays to do recon before the race!!!!

Today I'll be hydrating, packing what I can, re-reading the bike map, and thinking lots of positive thoughts.  I'm also doing a lot of rolling on my hip and using some topical analgesic to make sure it's as happy as possible.  I feel ready and am already proud of actually feeling able to do this race.  Makes me grin just thinking about it.

Awesome, have a great race!

Goooooooo Racers!

Janyne - Is this race stalk-able?

Adrienne - Be baaaaaaaaaaaaad a$$ (<--------a mountain goat cheering you on)

Kate - Hoping for minimal Blood and Sweat and lots of Beers

Stacey - This is the Swan River in Manitoba.  Hope yours is straighter.  I would get dizzy running that.

Monica--You too be bad azz.  It's beautiful y'know.

Mary--Wooot wooot!  Keep that grin on your face the whole time!  The accomplishment is feeling ready, knowing you have done the work to stand at the start line and be able to finish.  The race and the finish line are just the icing!

+1.  Oscar is a great story.  Very inspirational.  I wish him the best.

dp. sorry

"He's 47 years old. He fails to understand he's not 17 or 27."

I think this describes 99% of male seasoned triathletes.

Good luck to all the speedy Manatees this weekend.  Certainly a lot of action.  Stay safe and have fun.

I'll probably do a 5k tomorrow just need to decide which one.  Flat and fast, small local race (Ferndale Pioneer Days 5k) or go down and do the Seafair race running through a couple hundred thousand folks lining the Grand Parade route.  I want to do Seafair but convincing the family to tag along yet another weekend may be a tough sell.   I haven't brought up the Oly I want to do in a couple of weeks so have to decide how I play my chips.

A special good luck to you Mary.  I know you will do great.

Mary you are soooo ready for this. The hay is in the barn. You've reconned and trained and YOU ARE READY!

You are SO ready for this Mary!  I can't wait to read the RR for when you've crossed the finish line with an even bigger grin on your face!  :D 

I just ran across Vineman information in Janyne's log:

http://gulfsporttiming.com/results.php?rid=EtA3cE&race=Vineman#/results::14375055972600

 http://www.vineman.com/

I'll just quote Yanti, since she says it with way more color and energy than I can.

What he and she said!  I'm on vacation, so I'm being a little lazy...  you guys will all do great, you've got this!!

Oscar was racing this weekend too ... now I really am crying.

By the way, he did NO TRAINING last week--he managed to get a tiny bit of swim cords and a couple super-short easy runs in. That's it. He was taking time off with his family for the end-of-Ramadhan holidays and they went sightseeing off the island.

Two weeks before that we had a big drama because he was very sick and between the doctor, him, and me the question was to antibiotics or not? Impossible to tell without a culture but he was really sick and getting sicker, blood values indicated bacterial source more likely, and we didn't really have the time to maybe let it get worse / see if it was a virus.

So this is Oscar coming off a sickness (yes, I'm contagious. Clearly. Kingsley's been sick more in the last two years than his whole life before that!) and pretty close to no training for actually 3 weeks. OK, now I'm also seeing more and more how Oscar and I might be a good match too HA!

And we are very, very, very proud to be part of the De Soto team now too PS Malaka Speed is a boat company that shuttles between the northwest Indonesian islands and Singapore and they sponsored his race entry and getting him to/from S'pore.