Reunited

Well, turns out that I had one hell of a taper week. And by taper, I mostly mean didn't work out at all. I guess that means that I should be well rested come Sunday! After spending a good portion of last night laying everything out and then checking and re-checking my list to make sure I had everything, we were off! This morning Drew and I flew into San Francisco and despite my worst fears that our checked baggage (containing 90% of my tri gear) would somehow not show up, it was there!

After riding BART into the city, we were walking to our hotel and I told Drew that I didn't know what all the fuss was about, everything where we were looked mostly flat. Then I turned my head and saw it. A huge hill. Eek! Turns out there are lots of them here! We checked into our hotel and set out for lunch. After a tasty lunch of a crab quesadilla followed by a lunch dessert of a wine and cheese flight, we set off in search of my bicycle. Our hotel is just under three miles from the race site and the bike shop where my bicycle was being held hostage is about a mile from there.

We decided that we would just walk until we were tired and then if we had to we'd jump in a cab to go the rest of the way. We were walking along the Bay and I decided that Alcatraz doesn't really look that far away! After getting some directions from a Postal Worker, we happened to run into another triathlete (Sarah) and spent about an hour walking and talking with her.

Turns out that she's from D.C. and this is her third triathlon. She's done a sprint and an Olympic before -- just like me! I have to say that even if I never see her again (although hopefully we'll be able to meet up on race morning!), it was awesome to get to talk to her for a while today. It really seemed that although she's hoping to have the best race possible, she's also someone similar to me who is just in this for fun. It was really nice to know that I won't be the only person like that out there on Sunday.

We talked about logistics and what to wear on race day (unbelievably, she doesn't even own tri shorts!). I think it's really nice to have someone to obsess about all these last minute details with.

Finally, we parted ways with Sarah - she's staying about 2 blocks from transition. We were pretty close to the bike shop at that point, so we decided to just keep walking. The bike shop (Sports Basement) is huge! It was a former grocery store and every square inch of that store is covered in sporting goods. And their prices were amazing (at least to New Yorkers like us)!

I was finally reunited with my bicycle! I had brought along my pedals and shoes they put the pedals on and I was able to pump up my tires. The pump wasn't the best, but we got it to work. Another triathlete was there picking up his (very orange) bicycle and he told me that if I can find him and his stand-out bike on race day, I'm welcome to use his pump if I need it. That made me feel a million times better.

I rode the bike back to the hotel. I didn't have to go up any crazy hills on the way back to the hotel, but I discovered that the roads here leave a little something to be desired, so while I'm going to stick to the right ... maybe not quite all the way right where the road seems to be worst. Everything seems to be in working order with the bike, so I'm super relieved about that.

The funny thing is that when I got back from the bike shop, my jeans had rubbed off on my bike seat (which is white) and turned the sides of it blue. Oops. I'm not sure I really like it that way, but maybe it'll come off on Sunday?

The plan for the rest of the weekend? Tonight - get to bed! Tomorrow - Giants baseball game and dinner with my uncle & cousins. Oh, and in between the game and the dinner ... just a quick trip to the Expo to pick up my race packet and finally I'll get to know my number! And a mandatory race meeting. I have a couple of questions, so hopefully they'll be answered there. Then it'll just be a matter of making sure I've got everything organized for the race and the multiple transitions I'll be doing. I can't wait until Sunday!

Edited to Add: I am feeling better, although still not 100%. I think I'm the best I could hope for and at this point my cough seems to be more productive in getting rid of the junk that's hanging around (gross, I know, sorry) than anything else. I'm hoping tomorrow continues on this path and that my breathing gets just a tiny bit better before Sunday!