Ironman Race morning

The race morning started with waking up at 3:45am !!! And yes that is not a typo.

The previous night I had got everything prepared for the morning. So I had my clothes layed out and had a drink and snack that I had tried in the week. They had breakfast starting at 4am on race day at the accommodation. I had decided to keep it simple on race day and minimise any fat and diary products. The breakfast options I had were a couple of rolls with jam and honey filling and tea and orange juice. I needed some food as it was 3 hours before the race but not too much, a bit of a balancing act.

It was a but cold in the morning with some mist around so for the first time I needed a jumper on, luckily I packed one.

For the coach ride in to the venue I had a sports drink to keep hydrated and a few more calories. The bus ride was really quite you could feel the tension.

When we got to transition I pumped my tyres back up, sharing my brothers pump as he was only a few more rows up on the first row. I even helped hold air pump on the valve for a person in my row, not sure how I understood the german must have been the international hand signals.
I also tightened the pedal screws which I had only remembered after the bike was checked in the previous day, luckily I remembered it in time.

Then I attached my two cycle computers to my bike, with checking that I could quickly get a GPS signal and turned it off to preserve the battery power.

I also put in my two drinks bottles and opened the PowerBar and lemon PowerBar RideShots that I had in my bento box (little food box near handles bars), so it would make it easier to eat during the cycle plus would not get too hot before then.
The race drink was not Powerbar but Infinit Nutrition which I tried some at the expo a few days before hand and bought a pack which I used for the bottles for race day. The drinks had been designed for the Ironman (or long distance) events. The cycle mix had some protein and few more calories compared to the run mix (plus different flavours) and sodium and potassium so I did not need to added salt tablets to the mix. You can also make a custom mix form their web site, it seemed to be slightly more expensive than normal stuff I use but it is all in one product which makes it lot easier to get the right nutrition on race day.

While in transition there was a couple of visits to the toilets mainly due to pre race nerves.

I had left a special needs bag with a few gels and cola Ride shots which I would get at half way. For the special needs bag for the run I put a couple of gels that I regulary use and a t-shirt, as I may want a different taste gel and it may be getting dark and cold when I finish.

After putting my top layers into the street wear bag (I already had my trisuit on) I applied some BodyGlide to my calfs, wrists and neckline as this should stop me getting any friction burns and help get the wetsuit off quicker.

I then took the swim cap, wet suit and goggles out of the street wear bag and headed towards the swim start with my brother.