Fun With New Friends

This morning, I met up with some folks I've been chatting with on iamtri.com for a practice swim in the Gulf.  It was great to put faces with the names I've been seeing for a few months, and I feel a bit better about the open-water, saltwater swim now, too.  The water was rougher today than it's been all week apparently, but I survived!  Hopefully Saturday it'll be calmer, but I should be ready either way.  Crazy cool how buoyant you are in saltwater with a wetsuit on!

Two women at the swim were also talking about going out to ride the run course afterward, so I asked if I could tag along.  After checking in, I came back to the condo to get changed and grab my bike, then headed back over to meet them.  We rode really slowly, like 10 mph on average, but it was nice to see the run course and to get to know them a little more.

Then tonight we had our welcome banquet dinner and mandatory athlete meeting.  It was really more of a pep rally than anything, which was cool.  They showed the same "you WILL do this" video that first inspired me a year or two ago.  They told us about the athletes who would be participating, including the oldest and youngest, those who had competed for ten or more years at IMFL, couples who were racing together, etc.  They gave some money to local charities and auctioned off a couple of autographed posters to raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project.  As frustrated as I sometimes am with WTC, I was really impressed with them tonight and proud to be a part of this event.  After going over a few rules and regulations, we were released, and I headed back to the condo.

Great day in PCB!