BSLT 2006 : To Lubbock through the Swim Start
Ok folks. It's taken some time to get this all out. I'll break it into a couple of posts for dramatic effect, er, brevity.
We left out early-freakin-burley on Saturday morning for Lubbock. By 5:30 AM we were on the road. We made it just in time for a torrential downpour in north Williamson County. It was so bad that I actually considered stopping several times. After about 30 minutes of rain we cleared the storm and it was a nice ride the rest of the way to Lubbock. We managed to arrive around 11:30 AM. The hotel room wasn't ready, so we headed out to grab lunch and take in some of the Tech campus. Mom and I took a couple of great shots of T exploring (More Pictures, and More Pictures).
By 2:00 the room was ready. We unloaded and I headed out with Mom and Amers to the expo. It was a pretty quiet expo but we did manage to see a few pros (Jamie Cleveland and Andrea Fischer). I also signed up for USAT. I figured it was about time. The packet was a bit wimpy, but whatever. The day has long passed where I get really excited about the contents of a race packet. We headed over to Target to get supplies for our stay. By the time we finished, it was time to head back to the expo for the race discussion. There was some pretty good information during the session but it kind of degraded into a bunch of folks dissecting the rules toward the end. We left early.
We left out early-freakin-burley on Saturday morning for Lubbock. By 5:30 AM we were on the road. We made it just in time for a torrential downpour in north Williamson County. It was so bad that I actually considered stopping several times. After about 30 minutes of rain we cleared the storm and it was a nice ride the rest of the way to Lubbock. We managed to arrive around 11:30 AM. The hotel room wasn't ready, so we headed out to grab lunch and take in some of the Tech campus. Mom and I took a couple of great shots of T exploring (More Pictures, and More Pictures).
By 2:00 the room was ready. We unloaded and I headed out with Mom and Amers to the expo. It was a pretty quiet expo but we did manage to see a few pros (Jamie Cleveland and Andrea Fischer). I also signed up for USAT. I figured it was about time. The packet was a bit wimpy, but whatever. The day has long passed where I get really excited about the contents of a race packet. We headed over to Target to get supplies for our stay. By the time we finished, it was time to head back to the expo for the race discussion. There was some pretty good information during the session but it kind of degraded into a bunch of folks dissecting the rules toward the end. We left early.
Next, we headed out to grab some grub. We had the whole clan in tow: Mom, M, T, Amers, Poppy, Nana and Amers friend Brianna. Quite a crew. We picked up meals from United and headed back to the hotel. After dinner, I spent several hours expending nervous energy over my pre-packed tri bag, my bike, and my bottles for race day. I headed off to bed around 9:00 PM for a restless night sleep.
The alarm went off at 3:30. I got dressed ate a Clif Bar and drank a bunch of fluids. By 4:00 AM I had the car packed. I swung by the hotel lobby and picked up a cup of coffee for the road. By 4:45 I had parked and I was making my way down the giant hill toward the bodymarking and transition area. There was a storm brewing with some lightning and wind. I thought: "Oh great, here we go again." I milled around the transition area and tried to meet the guys in the racks around me. Everyone was really nice and it eased a lot of the pre-race jitters to talk with some folks. The storm completely missed the race course and we started on time.
I caught up with M and crew shortly before the race, got in a few kisses and waves then got lined up for the start.
6:40 AM : The horn sounded and the day began.
More to come...
posted by TTUTri at 7:28 PM
1 Comments:
Oh man I can't wait to read the rest, oh wait I was there, but I still like reliving it through your words! :-).
-M
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