Today started early, with a drive-by preview of the bike course and a course layout walk. We talked about the course, transition area, and venue. After a nice dip in the murky-but-beautiful-to-swim-in Black Warrior River, we took a quick run on the race course to familiarize ourselves with the course. We decided to run the last mile of the course—it’s a good thing to do that so you can see the whole course as typically the tunnel vision takes away the beauty of the last mile…
Our bikes hadn’t shown up yet, one TriCat sprained his ankle on the run, we lost a carload of TriCats on the way to lunch… Par for the course so far. Actually, other than a few setbacks we’re having a good time.
It’s a great course—tree-lined smooth roads, rolling hills, beautiful water temperature. Beautiful. It’ll also be tough. The hills on the run will take a bit out of everyone. We spoke a bit about the course and our strategy in racing it.
While taking our team photo, we heard a new voice call out something funny. We looked up, and there stood two-time Olympian and champion triathlete Hunter Kemper! He stayed and chatted for a bit with us. Very cool. He and the rest of the top American pro triathletes were in AL to race the 2nd of three Olympic qualifying races. Whoever wins is going to Beijing!
After lots of bike maintenance and a quick shower we went to the pre-race dinner for a team feast, then off to bed. The TriCats’ assignment is to visualize a great race, where they feel strong and fast. I had emails to get to and plans to get out.
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