Starting to get real

Checking the calendar, we are now at exactly one month until Ironman 70.3 Muskoka. I started this journey over a year from the race date, and now it's almost here. Everything is starting to fall into place, my fitness has never been better, I've got my equipment figured out, I have some race experience. It's go time.

Yesterday was the release of the Athlete's Guide. I've already gone through it twice. There isn't anything truly unexpected, but some things did catch my eye.

• It will be interesting to see how the bus operation works for all the athletes on the various days. I'll probably be using it each day from Friday to Sunday. As a first-year operation, there may be some kinks, but I hope nothing too bad.
• The bike course is long. By rights, it's supposed to be 90km, but it's measured at 94km, due to the loop nature of the course. There has been some complaining in some corners about it not being official distance, but the only way to be exact would be an out-and-back, and that would hardly take advantage of the Muskoka region. I'm fine with this, because a) it's only another 8 minutes or so of racing, and big picture, that's not much; b) we all have to race the whole thing, so no one's getting an advantage; and c) OK, maybe the skinny hill-climbing bike riders have a small advantage with more terrain to their benefit, and more chance to build/close gaps to the rest of the AG.
• I'm in the first non-elite wave to go off (M35-39 @ 8:09). I guess being part of the largest AG has some advantage. With six minutes between waves, I'll be caught in the water by a few people from later waves, but the road will be pretty clear once I hit the bike. (Ignoring elites, who I won't see until the end, I'd guess about 120 from AG, 40 from the next wave, and 20 from the next could be in front of me out of T1.) No real worries about drafting, although I'll miss having a lot of bodies to chase down for the next two legs. Having a target always makes life easier. I guess I'll have to take the mindset of the "chased" instead of the "chaser".

A week and a half left of "build", then I recover, have a big race weekend (sprint tri/half-mary), peak week, and race week. Buckle up, kids. It's time to rock'n'roll.