Counting down the hours: FL 70.3

The Florida 70.3 website says that I have 3 days, 17 hours and 17 minutes to get the rest of my crap together and HTFU!  I'm in total 'excited' mode.

The first batch of butterflies hit this morning as I was packing.  I had managed to pack my entire transition bag and all of our nutrition crap without even thinking a whole lot about the race itself.  Then it came time to pack my shoes, tri tank and tri shorts... butterflies.  I guess it boils down to the fact that packing nutrition, swim gear, bike gear, etc... is something that I do daily for workouts.  However, gathering up my race clothes in one pile... not something that I do very often.  Seeing my race kit out made it feel so 'official'.  In less than 4 days, I will be competing in my second half ironman.

I'll write about my plans and expectations in my next pre-race post; today I'm just going to keep things light.

 I don't know what I'm more excited about... the race OR getting to swim Lucky's Lake on Saturday morning!  I have been wanting to do this swim for a while now and I honestly can't think of a better way to spend Saturday morning than doing an easy 1K swim with a bunch of really cool people.  I plan on wearing two swim caps and tucking the camera underneath one of them.  I want photos of Scott and I "entering the food chain".  Below is a great video about this swim.  The dude (Dr. Lucky Meisenheimer) who opens up his home to this every day of the week appears to be a genuinely awesome (and very interesting) guy... right up there in Bree Wee territory.  There are just some really amazing people out there who have a way of making you feel good without ever having met them.




ODDS & ENDS
I replanted all of my herbs into their perma homes.  I can't believe how big they've grown in such a short span of time... and I use the crap out of them too!  Here, the parsley and rosemary anchor the spa... happy to be in their own pots.  I can see them better from inside the house now, so I'm a happy camper too.

SWIMMY, SWIMMY!
Thank you very much for all of the great advice provided in response to my last post.  I also posted the swim videos at BT and one of the swim instructors (who is ridiculously kind) took it upon herself to provide me with a slow-mo overlay of points that she believes I should work on.  In light of all of this, I had the most enjoyable swim yesterday!  I loved having a few things to actually 'think' about during my swim and I'm looking forward to working on all of the little tweaks over the summer.


Courtesy of Steel City Endurance tri coach, Suzanne Atkinson:



Have I mentioned that I have the best kids in the world?  Seriously, they make me smile so many times a day that I just can't keep count.

Day in, day out... this dog melts me into a pile of blubbering motherly love!

Two of my four guys!

My old dude loves to lick his Daddy's EasyMac residue.  He gets his entire head in there.  We call him 'Cheese Man'.

This is Mimosa... she's actually my sister, not my kid!  I snapped this shot of her at my mom's mass last week.  I wish it had been taken with my good camera.  Her expression is priceless!