24 Hour's Eve

so today was supposed to be a day of rest. the morning was. we woke up leisurely and headed to the 'black bear diner' where we enjoyed an absolutely huge breakfast. i think i will be hitting this place up again tomorrow morning for a pre-race nutrition feed.

after breakfast, aris and i put our feet up for a couple hours at the hotel room, while the rest of the crew went to Cannery Row in Monterey Bay for some shopping.

mid afternoon dad, aris, trixie and i headed over to the race course to register and attend the racers meeting and check out the pits....followed by a trip to Safeway to load up on race day provisions.

just got home from loading up on some pasta from the local pasta joint down the street..aris and i need to get a few things prepared for tomorrow and then I hope to be in BED sooner than later.

Aris and I checking things out at registration.

The pit.

Mandatory riders meeting.

mentally, i feel okay. the course is the most climbing i have ever done in my life. my only concern is my hamstrings..which are very touchy and tender. i have not felt any pain down there..but every slight turn i take without thinking, there is a little tweak and/or twitch. my only question is, how the hell are they going to be able to last the long haul???

A big thanks to my operations manager(Pops), who has been haulin my butt back and forth to this and that while the rest of the fam went to play in the bay. my right hand man, aris, has once again continued to shine.. he has been by my side helping me prepare..again, while the family goes out to play. and of course, my thanks to trix for shifting from "vacation mode" to "race mode" literally in a split second. i am going to try and get the sis n law to make race updates for me..since we will be at the race site all day...although completely depends on her schedule.

It is going to be a completely CLOSED course, so any mid lap type hand offs are out of the question. So pits are going to be ultra important..and carrying enough foods and fluids for such a long lap. lap lengths run 13.8 miles with over 2,500 feet of elevation gain. if anything, i get to look at some spectacular views while enduring some never before felt pain. im ready..trixie is ready...aris is ready..dad is ready. lets hope the 24 hour bug hits the other 5/9 th's overnight.