Friday, race week

Yesterday was a busy day. Got up early and had a light breakfast, then went to the venue to get in a swim, do some last minute tweaks on the bike with Tony, before a short ride. Then it was breakfast with Orlanda at Dockside, a really cool spot in the Coeur d'Alene Resort Hotel. Great views of the lake, mountains and boats. After breakfast I had a quick shower and then it was off to the pro meeting. Found out at the meeting a few interesting things:

- We start at 6:25 AM, instead of our usual 10 min headstart. This is to let us have 2 laps clear ahead of us, able to complete the first lap of the swim before the mass start of 2000+ people. One problem though, if you are a bad swimmer, even as a pro, and can't swim that first lap in under 35 mins, you're in some trouble! Not sure who that might happen to, but will be interesting to see.

- There were 21 men registered, and 14 women, meaning 5 spots for the men, and 3 for the women. However, there are a few men who have not shown up, so our numbers may not be big enough to get 5, meaning it would be an equal split of 4 and 4. It all depended on if they showed up by 4 PM yesterday, so I'm still waiting to hear the final word. The only 2 men in the field who have Kona slots already are Bryan Rhodes and Michael Lovato. I'm sure you can do the math on what that means for me.

After the pro meeting, I hustled over to the Spokane Airport to pick up Marcus. We made a quick trip over to the local news station, so he could do an interview with them for the evening news broadcasts. Here's a photo while we there, with anchorman Dave Erickson, and I have to laugh how Marcus doesn't smile in photos!


That's all for now...

Vance