Headed for SoCal

I'm at the airport with nothing to do but sit and wait, so I might as well write something, right? Well, all major crises were averted yesterday and all things considered it is probably a very good thing that the pipe explosion didn't happen 24 hours later, when the house would've been left unattended to flood until the well was dry. I'd rather have a stressful pre-travel day than let the house be completely destroyed. Would've been nice to have neither, though. So all of my carefully laid out stress-free pre-travel plans were completely shot and I wound up packing up my bike at about 5:00 instead of like 11am, as originally planned. I almost panicked because almost without fail something goes wrong as I pack the bike, usually it is that I can't get my pedals off or some other stubborn, overly sweated-on bolt and it requires an emergency trip to some bike shop where someone will help me then and there. Fortunately, with only a little bit of blood, the pedals came off this time. However, the skewer on my front wheel refused to come off. I won't be racing on that wheel, so I had to steal a skewer from my road bike, but all should be ok. As I type this I am realizing that the magnet sensor for my bike computer is still on that wheel. Oh, well. We can't have everything. Of all the things to forget, that's a pretty minor one and I'll take it.

So this is the first race of the season, which is incredible. It has been my season-opener for two of my successful seasons, and two years ago it was also the first race I had ever signed up for and had to not start due to injury at the beginning of that awful year 2008 that I am still trying to block out from memory. In 2006 it was the beginning of my best season ever, and last year it was the beginning of my comeback that went pretty well up until I got that annoying stress fracture.

I'm definitely hoping for good things, and people keep asking me if I'm ready. Honestly, I never, ever feel ready for this race. Let's face it, it's March in New Hampshire. Up until a week and a half ago I hadn't pedaled a single stroke that actually took me anywhere. I'd been running in tights on icy streets, layered up and waiting for some warm weather. I've been swimming back and forth in a 25-yard pool five days a week and have no recollection of what it feels like to swim in my wetsuit. Speaking of which, I had to go back to my older one because the newer one (3 years old) has a busted zipper. Hopefully it still works adequately or else I'm in trouble, because the water is going to be pretty darn cold. At least it doesn't look like it's going to be the 53 it was in 2006 when I somehow managed to have my slowest half ironman swim since the first one I ever did. Nice timing.

So, am I ready? I have no idea. I do know that if this isn't the race of my life I will not be devastated. I've got bigger things on my plate to worry about than this. And from what I remember of racing there, really no matter how I'm feeling I'm just going to be happy to be out running in the warm sun along the Pacific Ocean. It's supposed to be fun, right? This one usually is. And if I happen to turn out a good performance in the process, then all the better. See you in Oceanside.