The packing procrastinator - likely last entry before St. Croix

I'm leaving tomorrow for St. Croix, and since just about the last thing I want to do while I'm there is spend a whole bunch of time sitting on a computer in a hotel lobby, this will probably be the last I'll write before my race. Tomorrow at 7:10am I will be on a flight for Philadelphia, where I will get on another plane to San Juan, Puerto Rico, and then on to St. Croix. It would be smart for me to be packed by now, but of course I am not. The thing about packing is that it really takes the same amount of time no matter when you do it, so why start early? Actually, I would say that it probably takes less time the longer you wait to do it. If you start packing a few days ahead of time, you probably take your time, maybe change your mind on some items, mull over which clothes to bring. But, if you find yourself with about an hour window in which to be packed, you are surely going to make the most of that time. You pick some clothes and put them in there and off you go. I don't think I've ever been somewhere and suddenly wished I had say, one specific t-shirt that I hadn't packed. You make a list of the important stuff, and the rest is interchangeable.

It gets even easier when going somewhere tropical like Hawaii or St. Croix. You don't have to pack for different weather possibilities. I just checked the weather outlook, and there is pretty much a 9-degree swing the whole time I'll be there. 75 at night, 84 during the day. So a couple of pairs of shorts and some t-shirts and I'm good to go, aside from the tri gear, of course, but that goes without saying.

So enough about packing. It's time for the second tri of the season. It was only a month ago that it was snowing around here, and suddenly the weather has been great and tri season is here. To look at my race line-up it almost feels like the season is practically over already, and it's not even warm enough yet to do open water swims. I managed to get a bit of a base tan over the past week while training in these warm temperatures, but I'm sure I'll burn somewhere that will make the flight back extra fun.

I really can't believe that it's time to race again already, and already my second half of the season. I realized thinking about it that this is the first half I'll be doing that I haven't done before since 2006. I get kind of stuck in a rut of doing the same races, so this will be pretty exciting to do something completely different. In this case, really different. No wetsuits, rough roads and incredibly tough bike course, and I'm pretty sure brutal run course as well - if not just for the terrain, then for the heat and humidity. You should see how salty I get when it's in the 60's, let alone around 90.

Today I am more excited than nervous, and yesterday it was the opposite. I still have more weight to lose, but certainly a whole heck of a lot leaner than I was back in November. Aside from the inevitable performance boost from that, it is also a good confidence booster. I must say though that I am looking forward to eating a huge breakfast on Saturday morning! I love pancakes. But for now, I recently polished off a huge spinach salad with some turkey, tomatoes, cucumbers and salsa as the salad "dressing." Most of the reason it was gigantic was because I figured I might as well used up the last of the baby spinach before I leave, and that was really my last chance. Also looking forward to some sort of post-race treat, although I'm not sure what yet. Hopefully I will finish the race still feeling ok instead of being completely destroyed from it. I mean, you're always going to be tired at the end of a half (if you're not, you didn't do it right) but there is certainly a difference between being tired and feeling like if you lie down you might not be able to get up again.

Anyway, time is running out for the whole packing thing as we speak. And I think I'm going to have to get up at 3:30 tomorrow to get in a short bike/run before a shower and heading to the airport, so maybe I should stop wasting so much time typing. But let's hope that things go well!