It’s here

I've spent the last few days enjoying the preparations for Ironman – it's been nice having it in my backyard.

Thursday, picked up my packet of stuff soon after registration opened. Registering for Ironman is like registering at the emergency room. They sit you down; describe what each bag, sticker or flyer means. Then they have you sign the waiver and send you over to the scales so that they have the right weight - should you fall over from dehydration and they need to know what you weighed before you started.

For a newbie like me, it got "real" quick. It's really quite a sobering experience.

Nice goodie bag though – hat, shirt and cool Ironman bag.

The expo was nice - but not large. Nothing like you would see at a major marathon. Still, I usually have to shop on line to find triathlon stuff and it was nice to see it in person.

A week ago I swam in the Ohio and found it to be fairly tame. This morning I swam in a completely different Ohio River.

Rain has been pretty heavy up river (but not here) and the current has really picked up. As a result, they've altered the course to keep it closer to the shores on the trip up – presumably making the course much easier. I heard some athletes grumbling that they felt like they were cheating if the course was easier – only triathletes could feel this way.

They had a practice swim this morning – what a wild swim. If you head out into the current and away from the shore –it's like swimming on a treadmill. I saw good swimmers stroking away going just inches at a time. I headed fairly far out toward a bouy and as I approached it – the last 3 yards must have taken three minutes. Then – as I went around it – I felt the rush of the current and I barely had to move as I rushed down the river. My greatest difficulty was making sure I didn't overshoot the stairs in. I saw a couple people miss it and it looked like they were having a difficult time getting back.

On race day, this may make a huge difference in time. One guy said he went upstream for 16 minutes and came back in 1 minute. If the upstream isn't too bad because of the altered course and the back is in the current – I might break an hour (and that's not because of any skill on my part!)

Tonight is the dinner banquet and then – the day before.