Ironman Texas is HERE.

I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time!  Yeah, so I might have registered under the influence of a few glasses of wine, giggling to myself (and hoping Shane wouldn’t freak out when he found out how much it cost!) and thinking it could be fun.  And now it’s finally here.  I have a feeling I am going to be sad tomorrow after each leg is over.  After months of training and all the sacrifices, it’ll be over in one day.  Guaranteed within 17 hours – no matter how it ends.

To get pumped up, I like to watch the coverage from last year:

That gives you a good idea of what kind of day I”m in store for tomorrow.

We went to the dinner and athlete briefing last night.  The dinner was very fun and inspiring.  They told us fun facts about the race this year.  For instance, only 24% of competitors are female.  Go us!  1100 of the 2500 athletes are TEXANS.  410 athletes are over 50 years old.  The oldest racer is 80 and the youngest is 18; the average age is 37.  95% of Ironman triathletes have a college degree – yeah, they’d have to have a decent job, this sport is not cheap.

They held a competition to see who had lost the most weight during training.  One man lost 230 pounds – 230!!! He has been training since 2010.  THAT is incredible.  Lots of husband and wife teams out there – don’t know how they do it, especially if they have kids.

So tomorrow.  D Day, as they call it.  As WE call it, I guess.  There are 800 athletes tomorrow for whom it will be our FIRST Ironman – about 30% of us have never done this before.  To my fellow athletes – good luck, godspeed, and if you swim over me I will elbow you in the nuts.

And to Mike Reilly – there are only four words I want to hear from you.