Pre-Race Jitters

Saturday was the first night we were able to sleep in so we took full advantage of it. We have all been experiencing a little jet lag, some more than others, and with the late nights of dinner and drinks we needed to start thinking about the race the next day. The surreal part of this morning was waking up to a high-school-like band playing on the plaza next to the hotel. They were playing everything from what sounded like national anthems to Steve Wonder's I Just Called to Say I Love You. I couldn't see the band from my window but could hear them fine. After I did a little in room laundry, I met David for breakfast outside while another town band was playing. It was so beautiful with a farmer's market going on (although they just called it a market), it was pleasantly sunny and just a perfect morning. I tried to get Dave to notice the lovely Euro ladies but the sun was in his eyes. After breakfast we needed to look for some CO2 canisters since most of us heeded the airlines warning not to pack them.

Nicole and Steve "The Hoff" Betrisey decided to do a little sight seeing today. Steve is from Switzerland so he is fairly comfortable with going around but he's from the French side so he says that's very different. He speaks German and French anyways so it doesn't matter where he is. Last night their cab driver thought Steve looked like David Hasselhoff so we're going to see how long we can milk it with the KITT references.

After finishing putting the bike together we met the group to shuttle back down to Rapperswill to register, check in our bikes, and attend the required pre-race talk. While we were in the race expo it started to rain which made everyone scramble to cover their bikes as well as fear that we'd have to deal with more rain tomorrow. It quickly went away though and we were able to check out the transition area, the swim start and swim exit. One thing everyone noticed was that all of the athletes there looked very fit and ready to race, not like in the US where at every race there are a huge range of shapes and sizes. I'm starting to worry that I'll be the last one to finish, if I am able to finish in time. Due to the timing cut-offs, for me to finish in time I will need to PR. Fantastic.


So the bike transtion is right next to the very small town zoo. Not the biggest selection of animals but they had giraffes, camels and random birds running around and you could smell them often from where ever you were near the expo. One of their town mascots is a guy in a giraffe suit who must have been really hot. Nicole got a picture with him but I couldn't get him to pose with me. He was being offered beer but three guys playing traditional horns and by the end of the day he had to be walked around by the arm.

At the pre-race pasta party they had some funky Euro dance troup which was more of a dance class preformance than a show like you might see at the larger Ironman races. The food was decent and filling but the shocker was they had free beer and everyone was drinking- a lot! The Germans love their beer, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. I took the shuttle home knowing that Jessica was hopefully at the hotel. I arrived back to the hotel with a Jessica passed out on the bed. We walked around a little looking for food for her and ended up at the McDonald's across the street. She got the most expensive meal combo she will ever get in her life. It was like 11 CHF. Royal with Cheese. Got to get to bed to wake up at 6:00 AM.