The alarm went off at 3:30 am, however I was already awake. I had my brown rice with sweet potatoes for breakfast before the 9 minute snooze alarm went off. Brushed my teeth, combed my hair, and picked up my bags that were packed the night before. All I had to do was get myself to ‘Transition’ (the place we needed to be before the race) before 6 am. I was working on 4 hours of sleep, two nights in a row. It may have been nerves, it may have been the pillows, but I’ll never really know specifically why I hadn’t been sleeping. On the other hand, does it really matter? I had other things on my mind that day. I looked through the hotel room one last time so that I didn’t leave something I may need behind, although I’m sure I did.
I wanted to get to ‘Transition’ around 5 am when they opened. The more time I would have there, the less rushed I’d feel. So, just before 5, we jumped into the car and headed to Tempe Town Lake. Meanwhile, at least 2800 other people were heading to the same place simultaneously but from different routes (roots). With my blue Ironman Arizona wristband firmly affixed to my wrist when I initially arrived two days prior, we pulled into the parking garage specifically for us so that we could arrive without much hassle.
The slow excited walk from the car to the ‘T”, that I previously had no knowledge of in my life, represented a breakthrough for me. I was actually there…. in the moment…. realizing…. I was there. To sum it up, this big scary thing that was about to happen was no longer scary.
