Saturday – May 17, 2008 –

Last night after work, I flew to Orlando on Southwest. Mom and Dad picked me up at the Orlando airport and to our cabin at Fort Wilderness in Walt Disney World. I slept pretty well and I woke up excited about competing in Ironman Florida 70.3 on Sunday.

After racing Olympic distances, this is my first time to compete in an Ironman series race. I thought I would start at the 70.3-mile distance to learn how to race these long distances before ever going for an full Ironman.

Training during the dog days of summer

This morning after breakfast, I went to pick up my registration packet and hear the race course guided overview. They included some neat freebies such as a T-shirt, Ford Ironman hat, swim cap and other cool swag. I then went for a ride on the bike course and road with a group of Hispanic guys from one of the Miami triathlon clubs. Actually, I made the mistake of riding too far today, especially in this record heat. I had to return my Cervelo P2C tribike to the transition area by 6 p.m.

After my ride, I had lunch with Dad, Mom and Jeff. That evening, we had pasta at a nice Italian restaurant so I could load up on carbs.

When we came back to Fort Wilderness this evening, I was really nervous about the race. In fact, I could hardly sleep. I finally drifted off about 3 a.m., but had to wake up around 5:30!