Packing List

The big race is in two short days. I’m as ready as I’m gonna be. I did an easy 25-minute swim this morning. It went very well and it made me realize how far I’ve come in a year. Who knows if I’ll be faster on Sunday. If nothing else, swimming seems easier now. I definitely feel like I’ve improved. Someone please remind me of this next week if my times aren’t what I hope for.

I’m in the process of putting together my packing list. Of course, this is done in my Excel spreadsheet aptly named “packinglist.xls.” Naturally, there is a new tab for each trip I’ve taken in the past few years. This is not shocking to those of you who know me. J

I decided to use last year’s “Columbia” sheet as a template, and copied it to the end and named it – you guessed it – Columbia ’09. (Will there be a “Columbia ’10”? Who knows…)

It is amazing to me how I am modifying my packing list. The changes are small, but to me they evince how much I’ve learned in a year. For example, I deleted “bike jersey” from the list. No wrestling on a dry shirt onto a wet body in transition this year. What I wear into the water (underneath my wetsuit) is what I will be wearing when I cross the finish line.

I have also decided to trust the course’s water stations and not wear my hydration belt on the course. My only concern there is that I’m not sure if my tri jersey has pockets (I am picking up my new DC Tri jersey tonight) so I haven’t figured out what to do with my gels. I might use my SPIbelt instead of a race belt, as I did for the recent 5ks. It has a cool little pocket that expands way bigger than you would imagine is possible. I can pin my race number to it.

I think I’m ready. Woot!