Counting Down to EagleMan

3 days to go!  I am feeling as ready as I can be, and eagerly awaiting the weekend.

I’ve done a lot of research on this race, the weather is usually very hot, and has a lot of wind, especially for the last 10-15 miles of the bike leg. 

So far the weather forecast is looking pretty typical for this time of year

I’m not so sure about the scattered thunderstorms, although some rain might provide some relief from the heat.  Yesterday the temperature was close to 100. I’m happy to see that it might be a lot cooler on Sunday.

My family are also going to be there at the finish line now.  I ‘m excited about this!  Originally I was doing this race solo, and had booked a hotel and planned to be away from the family for most of the weekend.  But it turns out that some good friends have access to a house for Friday/Saturday nights only minutes away from where my hotel was booked (and now cancelled).  So now I get to go up there on Friday and spend more time with the family for the whole weekend, and they’ll be there at the finish line.  So now I have an extra incentive to finish strong.

The water temperature for today (Thursday) was 80.1 at the time of race start, so definitely a non-wetsuit swim, which I had expected.  It means I’ll be a little slower than I had expected, it’s not problem really – everyone else is in the same position.

My current thinking on finish time is:-

Start	7:26am
Swim	40 minutes
T1	3 minutes
Bike	2:40 to 2:50
T2	3 minutes
Run	1:50-1:55
Total	5:16-5:31
Possible Finish Time	12:42-12:57

Of course there are a lot of things that could change these times above.  I based the estimate on having a great day and not having any problems. Since this is my first long course race my main goals are:-

• finish
• enjoy the experience
• find out if my nutrition strategy/plan worked
• use my experience from this race to help plan a strategy for my next 70.3 (Beach to Battleship, in October)

There are a number of firsts for me for this race, First Ironman branded event, first event with a pro field (hoping to see crowie/terenzo/mirinda out on the run as I am finishing the bike/starting the run), first 70.3 or anything longer than the 1 Olympic race I’ve completed.

It may take me a few days to put together a race report, since I have to be on a flight at 6am the next morning for a business trip to Chicago.  That is not going to be the best for recovery, but at least it is better than having a week away the before the race.