3 days and counting.....

Practice swim, checked out bike course, oh yeah Happy Thanksgiving!

The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible.
Arthur C. Clarke

Didn't really sleep well on the couch, but the waves sounded awesome and woke to the sunrise over the ocean. Oh yeah and Melia letting me know she was awake (as loud as she could which woke up Troy, so you now know the sunrises at 6 am and now the kids know this, got to let Troy know he can sleep on the vacation. We got to see them set up the big yellow buoys that showed the turn around for the swim, that was cool.

The practice swim started at 7 am, and the condos that we are staying at holds 9 to be Ironmans with 7 doing it for the first time. The lady that is above us Jen(?) said she would wait and that there were people already waiting to swim. As custom here they did not start on time (Sure do miss High 5 events, they are always on time, right Dan!! Guess I am spoiled), and I finally saw swimmers in the water around 7:30. Beaming with excitement, I went to the start at Chankanaab Park. So the cool thing is we got to start right beside the dolphin enclosure, THAT WAS COOL! SO I get there and I forget my swim cap, and I was the only one with a full length speedsuit, until I saw someone else with one and another with no swim cap so i was good. I told the other person that I was glad to see someone else with the speedsuit, he promptly replied, "I can't swim worth a lick and I need all the help I need" I agreed with him about the suit. The water was clear and everyone was standing on the dock. I put on the shoulder part of my speedsuit and a lady quickly helped me zip up, I told her thanks. I think she winked at me but couldn't tell since she had goggles =) I asked what was everyone waited for, they replied me. So I jumped in. It looked like the ocean floor was so close, you jumped in and it was about 50 feet deep. That was amazing!

So it was windy and the water was choppy. Criag, it was the hardest swim I did to date. I took in water every breath and bobbing in the water and swimming against the current. I felt like I was in an endless pool. It took me around 20 min to swim about 500-600 meters. I WAS STRUGGLING BAD! So I swam to our condo where Mindy and Troy and Melia and Rebecca were looking for me. I got a swim cap, some body glide, and proceeded to swim back out. I swam out into the ocean (once again let me say that was cool) to get to the back side of the course, didn't even make it to the turn around buoys. Got to the back side and swam back to the park with the current, and HOLLY CRAP i felt like I was swimming Olympic times, dude I cant wait till that backside swim which is the longest park, that took me about 10 min to get back, Oh yeah swam back by the dolphins to our swim exit ramp.

Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall.
Confucius

Meet up with Sam and Michael from Austin, and decided to ride with them. We rode together which was fun itself. I wanted to see the road conditions and the wind. We get to the North side of the island, and it was breathtaking, we stopped and took a moment to soak it up and watched for a second. The beach was rocky at points and the just beautiful sandy beaches, blue green water and BIG waves created by the wind. The roads were good and the wind are what I expected. We saw blow holes on the beach, just awesome. I felt blessed to be able to ride there. The locals were giving us thumbs up as we rode like we were celebrities. Saw some great places like the "Pee-Pee Stop" right above there was a smiling alligator, thought of you Lindsey ;)

If you would create something,
you must be something.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

As we came back into civilization and town, we split up and yes I got lost, yes on an island, BUT IT WAS SO FUN AND I WAS SO HAPPY I GOT LOST! I rode through town and it was so much fun, I found the road I needed and made my way back to the condo. When I get back I noticed that I really needed sunscreen, and some water, most importantly my legs felt great and I did the whole loop on the bike. Oh yeah the bike did good, don't really know if I need the bike mechanic.

Shower and head to the expo for packet pick up, make a copy of divers licence and sign my life away and get my packet, then in line for the shirt, and to my surprise its a really nice jacket! I smiled this huge grin as I put it on, Becca said I looked like Troy when I did that. Got in line for official merchandise (which stands for highly priced in Spanish I guess) and got a cap and a jersey which says, "Dream, Believe, Achieve" how fitting. It also said, "Only an Ironman can conquer the island". Got some more stuff and ran into Mike from Cedar Park (small world). Mike had some serious health issues this year and was happy to just start the race. He was in front of me so I bought him an Ironman bracelet and told him that he was an Ironman in my book and that I will cheer him on in the race and that we will meet up in Austin to train more. Starting to understand that Ironman is more than just the race. Mike my friend, finish strong and I will be there cheering for you! Mike also stated that if the swim course was this bad on Sunday, someone said that they estimated a 50% drop out rate on the swim, yes it was that bad! As I leave the expo, yup you guessed it my stomach started to turn on me, and I am still working on getting it fixed (might be all the damn salt water I had that morning)

All men dream but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible.
T.E. Lawrence

Go back o the condos to get kids, for our thanksgiving at Kelly's to watch the cowboys and have traditional turkey dinner. It was good and the cowboys were wining. The place had a great court yard for the kids to play it was perfect. Came back around half time to get kiddos to bed. I put my new aero bottle on the bike, my new bento box and then all the pictures that I took to put on the bike for inspiration. G-daddy, Mindy, and Rebecca went to Carlos and Charlies to watch the rest of the game. I went to read some inspiration letters outside by the ocean, thanks Mike, Casie, Sean, Joe-fish and Felicia. Those meant the world to me :)

What lies behind us,

and what lies before us,

are small matters compared

to what lies within us.

Ralf Warldo Emmerson

I had a heart to heart talk with the ocean. I stated out loud, "You don't scare me, I am not afraid of you, you will not defeat me, I am stronger than you. You might make it challenging for me but I would not expect nothing less. I want the very best from my opponent, so that I can show my best. I will be ready for you on Sunday so BRING IT!" 7 practice swim, oh yeah I am there!

What would you attempt,

if you knew you

could not fail?

Unknown

As I was coming in I sat down with Troy and said, do you know why we are here. he replied for your big race daddy. I told him yup, do you know how far I have to go. He replied far huh, I said yes. I asked him do you know what they will call daddy when I finish? He said no, I told him they will call me an Ironman Troy. His eyes lit up. I asked Troy, do you know what I will call you when you race next weekend, he said Ironman, I told him your right buddy! Your my Ironman Troy. He said your my superhero daddy..........................................

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FRKEURwL4A