Tri-madness

Two days until my first tri. So how do I feel about this? Let's see. I'm ten pounds overweight (damn you birthday kegorator) and I really don't think I trained hard enough. I only had one week of 11+ hours of training and the rest barely came close to that. So honestly I think I could be in better shape for this.

But it is what it is and I started to accept that fact, and then things took a turn. For the worse, in case that last sentence was too vague. I had dropped my bike of at Fast Splits for a complete tuneup and to have them fix the wobbling in my head gear. Wobbling is bad, it leads to nothing good at 30 mph. They also installed my sweet new tires: goodbye flat old ones hello slicks! I picked it up in Newton and that's where it began.

No, the bike isn't the problem, that is even more awesome now. After the long drive back I pulled in to get some gas when the kids working the pump says, "hey, your tire is smoking pretty bad". Say what now. Sure enough, smoke was streaming up from the rear tire. I checked it out and determined that it was either the brakes or the fluid leaking from my axle (I swear I was going to get that fixed). 

After getting it home and hosing it down I faced facts, it had to be fixed. I needed the truck to get to Nantucket. So I brought it to the shop where I was told what I expected, axle seal needed to be replaced and it wasn't going to be cheap. But it should be done Friday afternoon. Ok then.

Then they call back. Yeah, the bearing kit that was installed awhile back chewed up the axle, it all needs to be replaced. And it won't be done until next week. Fuuuu... You get the point. So exactly how am I supposed to get to Hyannis tomorrow morning? Luckily my brother stepped up and offered to drive me. I owe him huge.

This experience certainly hasn't helped my mental state going into this race. I'm already worked up, I don't need cap like this. But Sunday is go time and go I will. And after that I am going to enjoy the hell out of Nantucket for 5 more days. Adult beverages have already been sent ahead on the forward caravan for my enjoyment.  It is also comforting to find out that it is actually quite possible to walk the entire swim portion of the tri because it is so shallow at the jetties. So that's pretty comforting.

Then again, there is still the issue of all the sharks that have been spotted in the area... Goddammit.