13 hours til the cannon...

Prep has been unique this time around, but good.  I stand corrected this afternoon by Heather, this will be my 11th Ironman, I thought I had only 9 under my belt.  This will be 5th IM in 18 months and I was reminded by Marilyn that tomorrow's race is a culmination of the last 18 months.  2011 brought a great year of training and racing.  I had consistent training volume all year and every race course I stepped onto, I PR'd in something, including overall times.   I have been waiting to have that race where everything goes well....I feel prepared and ready.  As Jeff reminded this afternoon, I have experienced all scenarios - good swim/bike, not good run, good swim/run, not good bike, tough nutrition that I was able to recover from within the race, bad swims with good bike/run.   I just have to trust my instincts and stay within myself and have a fun day, times and PR's follow.  I have been chasing Kona as a "stated" goal for the lat 4 IM's, been within 4 minutes twice of qualifying.  This race is no different, its not going to be easy.  In the 30-34 age group, I think we will have 4 slots to Kona for IMCDA. The top 4 guys last year went 9:19, 9:29, 9:31, 9:43 - faster than my PR.  Its going to take a PR day....I'm prepared, I just need to execute - the toughest thing to do in Ironman.

As always, Heather is here and has all the social media covered: 2 iPhones - one with Mophie which is an extended battery life, a blackberry and of course the digital camera.  She'll have her hands full, but as  most of you that follow my race day coverage, she does a kick ass job at it.

In addition, I also purchased the My Athlete Live GPS tracker and you can go to their website and also follow me live.  Click on link above and then scroll down and search for my FIRST name.  If you are using an iPhone, tablet or mobile, click here. I tried My Athlete Live at IM Arizona and it failed me.  I tried it out the day before, it worked, however on race day, it had me at the airport the entire time. Hopefully this time around it works, I think it has the potential to be much better at live updating that what IronmanLive has to offer.  If you want any live updates other than me, just twitter to @QuadJRanch and ask, I'm sure she'll do her best.

The weather has been funny the last day or so, complete downpour last night, but no rain so far today and sunny.  Supposed to be 30% chance of rain early AM, hopefully it will hold off.

Good luck to all my fellow IM athletes.  Go out there and have the race of your life and most importantly have fun!  Most of us aren't getting paid to do this and being in this sport rewards us with good health, SMILE, the journey is well worth it.

To my fellow Wattie's, I hope the reason that I don't race in Bend for the Leadman 250 is because I'll be racing 3 weeks later, but if I'm not, I'll be there.  Hell, I'll be there regardless at least to chear all you crazy-ass's on!!

Rockin' the W,
Crazy J