Hello Florida!

We're here! Mark and I got up at 3:30 am yesterday and were out the door before 5am for a 14 hour drive to Panama City Beach, FL. It's beautiful (at least the weather and the beach are beautiful - there are too many hokey gift shops on the "strip" for the rest of Panama City Beach to be called beautiful) and warm and sunny and I haven't seen any big waves on the water. Here's to hoping it stays that way through Saturday! I started feeling a little nervous today as we were walking around the transition area and picking up our packets. SO MANY PEOPLE. And we're all going to be swimming at the same time. Scary. I bought some M-Dot gear (two visors, shirt, mug, socks, magnet, water bottle) and plan on buying finisher gear (maybe a nice pullover) on Sunday after the race.

So now the bags are packed, nutrition has been figured out, I have my clothes set for tomorrow's pre-race brick. Mark and I took a sunset walk down to the beach and the water is PERFECT! Hello sleeveless wetsuit! The swim course looks pretty good actually - it's two loops and seems manageable, maybe even pleasant! I bought some new goggles to ward off the sunshine, I'm going to try them out tomorrow.

I'm excited, much more excited than nervous. This is the reward for all of the hard work, all of the training, all of the time spent swimming, biking, and running. So, in my mind, Saturday is just going to be a party and a celebration for 12+ hours (perhaps one filled with chafing, sports food, and sunburn, but a party all the same). I'm thrilled to be doing this race with Team Z - it will be amazing to see everyone out on the course, both spectators and other racers.

Time for bed!