At It Again...

5 short weeks after Ironman Louisville I'm in Augusta, GA getting ready for the Augusta 70.3 on Sunday.  The past couple weeks of training my legs have felt great.  Augusta was a big race for me last year, the race I spent all season building up to.  Now, the distances seem short, the course familiar, and the pressure to do well a bit higher.  The pressure is all from myself, but really why go easy on myself, it's not like I've done much yet this year ( oh yeah, racing started in April with USAT Collegiate Nats...).

Augusta 70.3 Swim Start

I hitched a ride and a good hotel deal with a fellow DC Tri-er.  We rolled into town at about 11:30pm Thursday night.  It seemed uber late after a full day of work but we got some good sleep before heading over to athlete check-in this afternoon.  Our fellow DC Tri-ers will mostly arrive this evening after spending all day driving.  Mostly everyone else here from DC Tri is tackling their first 1/2 IM - it's a big race for them, the race they've been building for all year.  It reminds me that it's still a long race and a long day out there, though in comparison it seems short.

Branded.

The race starts at 7:30 am...my wave starts at 9:04 (transition closes at 7:15).  Not cool M-Dot.  Not cool at all.  That's almost 2 hours of, you got, waiting.  Yes, I'll get to see the pro's go off and all, then every single man.  Many of whom I'll get to chick on the bike - so at least there's that.  The river looked like the current was moving steadily this afternoon, so a swim time as good or a bit better than last year's will be a key in hitting my goal finish time.  My previous 1/2 IM times are 5:40 (Augusta '11) and 5:23 (Kinetic '12) - I'm looking forward to a good day in Augusta on Sunday ;)

Follow me through Augusta at www.ironmanlive.com.  My bib # is 3178.