In This Post: Bike Course! Mini Chickens! Waiting in Line!

And just in case you're wondering, this is Jeremy posting, not Lynn. I'm just using my wife's info to get the goods up on the ol' Blog, see. Just got back from Walgreen's. Tommy needed some reading material as I think he was getting sick of me reading hilarious passages from Sedaris' latest When You're Engulfed In Flames.

Is that a Gatorade Bottle in your pants, or are you just happy to see me?

Rule #1: Respect the Course.

We drove the bulk of the bike course this afternoon, listening to the CDs we made for the event. The nice thing about a 2-lap bike course is, obviously, you only have to drive 50 miles or so to see the whole thing.

In keeping with the report style I established for while depicting the run the bike course is A) Beautiful and B) Hilly as heck from miles 21-45 or so x2.

There are some nice flat parts in and around town, but once you get out toward Hayden Lake, it's up-we-go-down the whole time. See the bike and elevation maps here. You'll see that the total elevation gain/loss isn't insane, but it is up/down like it was in Wisconsin.

For those of you who don't know me and my racing style, this means I cannot be a total fanatical lunatic jackass on the first loop of the bike. If I hang in there and let the dudes and chicks and the grandmas go by me the first time around, I'll be just fine come the run. (Three Sport Race. Three Sport Race.)

If you see my splits coming in at 21.8 MPH for the first loop, you might as well make a sandwich because it's going to be a long night waiting for my punk-A$$ to get home ...

Only serious business here.

We waited in line in the heat to get into the Big White Tent where all the athletes and their families chowed down on some watered down noodles and red sauce and the smallest chicken breasts to be discovered in America since before the invention of Steroids for Poultry.

Tommy and I were both still full from the Nachos and sandwich luncheon, so the Mini breast was just fine for our palettes. Tommy couldn't stop eating the free bags of organic peanut granola (??) that adorned the banquet folding tables, so I removed them from the premises while we watched inspirational films about the Hawaii Ironman and such.

A couple guys lost 86 pounds training for this thing. I lost 21 and I'm pretty stoked. One of the guys STILL weighed 260, and was about 6'6". He's gonna have a good, long day on Sunday. I wish him the best.

Feeding time at the carbo trough.

The fam arrives tomorrow. They're picking up Tommy's wife Maureen and his son Thomas at the Spokane Airport around 3 and then heading over. We're hitting the water in the morning for about 10 minutes, riding for 30 and running for about 15. Then its the last round of ART, and back to the hotel to stuff our bags full of goodness and get everything ready to rock.

Until next time,--the Milk Duds are going down easy and my body actually feels better than it has in months. I've slept more in the last few days than I have in years (I'll take my family over the sleep though).

Ciao.