All Packed and Ready to Go

There are only two days to go kids.  Tomorrow, The Wife and I will be waking up at 5am (AKA the butt-crack of dawn)  to make the drive down to Madison.  Then it'll be time to complete the registration, check into the hotel and start soaking in the Ironman atmosphere.

Today, however, was about one thing:  packing all my freakin' gear.  The more I packed, bagged, collected and stuffed, the more I realized that being a triathlete is a lot like living in a real-life Legend of Zelda game.  Sound weird?  Maybe.  But just go with me on this one.

For those of you who have never played any of the Legend of Zelda video games, they go something like this:  First, you start as just an ordinary little dude.  Pretty soon, you get wrapped up in an epic quest.  Along the way, you meet all sorts of different people and creatures - most of them provide you with some kind of new tool, weapon or article of clothing.  Are you with me so far?  Good.

At the end of the game, you prepare to do battle with some kind of Big Baddie.  In order to win the battle, you have to utilize all that gear that you picked up along the way.  Can you see the correlation?  Great! 

So, anyway, back to today.  As I'm getting all my gear together, I started to feel like my little buddy from the Legend of Zelda.  Of course, I've got my Trusty Steed, err, um, Rusty Steed.   There's the jersey from the Twin Cities Spoke that I'll wear for my bike.   Then there are the running socks my wife gave me for my birthday, the running hat from the Starting Line - where I buy my shoes, and even the long-fingered gloves that I picked up during the Ironman Bike Ride this past spring.

I started by collecting all my swag together into piles.  There were one pile each for before the race, Transition #1, Bike Special Needs, Transition #2, Run Special Needs and 'Other'. 

Then, I bagged everything up.  That way, when I get the 'official' bags tomorrow at sign-in, I can just transfer everything neatly into their new home.

Finally, everything got put into my 'Tri-Tub' - the bright orange tub that I use for all my transition gear. Everything I'm going to want for race morning went into a separate bag.

All set to go.  The shorts are still drying.  Yes, I DO know that the shorts won't STAY on the bike seat.  They're still drying smarty pants!

That's it.  I'm good to go.  Anything I need that isn't in the last photo will need to be picked up in Madison.  That said, the next time I post, it'll be from the *ahem* fine state of Wisconsin.  Talk to you later.

Be good.