Will I sleep?!

Well, this is it. Just over 12-hours to go. Not months, not weeks, not days - just hours!
I'm racked and registered and ready to go.

I'm a bubbling, fizzzing, cocktail of emotions. Brimming with pre-race nervous adrenaline, unbelievably excited, but on the surface, I'm also surprisingly calm. Not calm enough to sleep much tonight, but calm enough to not be phased by what lies ahead. Whatever happens tomorrow, I am determined to try to enjoy it all.
The whole Ironman experience is quite amazing. There is a definite 'big event' feel, and yes, the more cynical can see it as a huge, corporate marketing exercise. But so what? For everyone competing tomorrow it IS a massive deal. Why not big it up - embrace it and make the most of it, that's what I'm doing.

This year is the 10th anniversary of IronmanUK and it's the biggest race they've ever put on in this country. There's 2000 competitors, all starting together at 6am, so that's going to be interesting! I took advantage of one of the test swim sessions yesterday, just to check out the water.

The fact that I got lost, twice, and had to be guided back on line by kayakers, on a ten-minute mini-lap, is another story.  There's a hell of a lot of yellow buoys out there - that's my excuse! Although I was glad to see they have some towering orange ones mapping the course out today! Apparently it was 21.6 degrees yesterday. No, I didn't feel like taking off my wetsuit, it was just right for me! What it did confirm was that there's a lot of fast swimmers out there, all zooming past me, over me or bumping me on their way past and that was just a wee trial swim, with a fraction of the field. But, my plan is to keep calm, try to stay out of trouble and survive. After the 'going off course incident' it's also taught me that should I find myself in the lead, then I'm heading the wrong way! I'll be slow, but steady and once I'm out, I'll be grinning like an idiot - ticking that box big-style .... the swim is over!
This morning was also the Ironkids race. We had an early start for Cameron's leg at 8am in Bolton city centre.

He ran the final 2.5k of tomorrow's marathon. He was nervous beforehand, but confessed he didn't want to make a big deal of how nervous he was feeling because of what I was going to have to face on Sunday. Awww. Then he went out and smashed it by coming in 4th!
Then it was more organising for me as I went to put my kit for tomorrow in it's rightful place. I've had to leave my beloved bike in T1 tonight, covered by a plastic sheet to protect it from the torrential downpours, which will hopefully have passed through by tomorrow morning. My blue bag, filled with bike gear, is hanging in the T1 tent. My red bag, full of run kit, is in the T2 tent at the Macron Stadium (Bolton Wanderer's home ground). I have more than triple-checked that kit because I can't access it again now until I'm racing. I have a 'special-needs' bag to hand in tomorrow, which I can pick-up from a bike feed station. I've filled it with extra nutrition. Some sandwiches, more gels, a mars bar, jelly babies and extra energy powder. I'm loaded (in my cycle top, bento box & saddle-bag) with home-made flapjacks, Twiglets, energy bars and gels. Plus 3 bottles of energy drink. Not to mention 2 spare inner tubes, 3 CO2 cartridges and a puncture-repair kit, oh ... and a couple of ibuprofen, but no kitchen sink!
I glanced at the other blue bags hanging up and noted how minimalist some people seem to be racing. Mine was bulging and looks as if I've booked into T1 for a weekend break. Though, I'm certainly not the only newbie on the block. It's great to know that at least half of the 2,000 competitors are doing this for the first time, even if only 240 of them are women. So there's a lot of testosterone knocking around the race village. You can see the ripped muscles, deep rim wheels, pointy helmets and mega-bucks bikes. But there's also a few flabby paunches, a lot of kinesio tape, some smelly portaloos and plenty of anxious faces. It is hard not to feel fazed or tempted to change the plan, when you see what others are doing, wearing etc. My trusty Trek is still less than a year old and loved beyond what I thought was possible for a bike, yet it looks like the poor relation next to the areo-bling it passed today. I fear the chicken wrap taped to my bike doesn't look quite as professional as the hard-core, multi-gel brigade, who have their gels lined up like an ammunition belt on their cross bar, ready to fight their way through the forthcoming battle. My mind is racing, but I'm sticking to my guns, sticking to the plan. Munching on my travelling picnic, like a mobile feed-station, fuelled by real food - for as long as possible.
Come the run, I know I'll hit 'gel city' big time. I'll take what's on offer at the feed stations, plus my trusty support crew have boxes of my 'gel of choice' and own energy drink ... just in case! In fact, my amazing support crew, which consists of IronPhil and Ironkid Cameron, have all sorts lined up. They surprised me by having team t-shirts printed. The front saying Team TriDye and the back 'Better, Stronger, Faster'. This dates back to a childhood love of the Six-Million Dollar (Bionic Man). If you don't know, you're too young!
I've seen home-made banners being packed into the car, no idea what's written on them and IronPhil is out right now with a tub of chalk writing messages of inspiration on the two hills I'll be tackling tomorrow. I'm looking forward to seeing their smiling faces keeping me going.
As for the support I've had from friends and family - it has been truly overwhelming. Your messages, gifts and inspirational thoughts have kept me going through the tough weeks of training. When the pain finds me on Sunday, I will be thinking of you all willing me forwards to that finish line.
It's been one hell of a journey, just 140.6 miles to go until the job is done, the goal achieved. If I have one wish, it's to the God's of the Uncontrollables, my own Ironprayer: "Grant me a safe passage with no physical or mechanical breakdowns, and I'll find the strength to do the rest."