'Twas the night before Xterra worlds...

and all through the incredibly hot condo people were running around like crazy trying to get everything ready to race. Okay, well maybe it was just me, but it was certainly hot as the two portable air conditioning units in our condo have been running full blast since we got here and still haven't managed to cool the place off to a comfortable level. Hopefully that means we will all be better acclimatized for the blast furnace tomorrow. I finally arrived at the condo Wednesday evening around midnight and since that was about 6am EST my body decided it was time to wake up, gotta love jetlag. Thursday was a crazy day starting with filming a TV interview with www.xterra.tv for the broadcast of the race. I then jumped on the bike and headed out to the practice course for a quick spin. The race course is on private land and not open until race day so we have a short loop to ride on that gives everyone the chance to remember what it is like riding on the loose chunky lava. Usually I find the practice loop much tougher than the race course and almost unrideable. This year the loop was in great condition. With a couple of days of rain earlier in the week all the lava dust was nicely packed down and tacky. Apparently the roads on the course have also been graded this year which could make for a super fast bike. I finished up the training for the day with a quick run along the last couple of miles of the run course and jumped in ocean to cool off. After a quick stop at the condo to drop off the bike and clean up it was off to the airport to pick up Mike and Sarah. They both got in no problem, however, Sarah's bike seemed to have been left in Toronto and was following somewhere behind her. It finally arrived in well after 11pm. The last two members of the condo, Dave and Bobby Rakita were going through the same hassle with Branden's bike and joined us later for a great grilled meal. (Sarah is a chef and has been cooking up some tasty dishes - check out her blog for great stories and recipes www.sarahcaylor.blogspot.com) Friday it was up early again so that Branden and I could do the swim clinic as part of the Xterra University presented by Paul Mitchell. We had a great turnout and hopefully passed on some good information for the swim tomorrow. We also scored some great Paul Mitchell product, unfortunately it might put me over the weight limit trying to fly it all back home. Today it was a quick swim, bike, run in the morning then back to the condo to relax and pack. As usual things took a bit longer and I had to scramble to get back to the race site to do another photo shoot for the race broadcast. I was picked along with Julie Dibens, Melanie McQuaid, Leslie Patterson, and Shonny V. as one of the five pro women to look for. Not bad company to be part of, hopefully a good sign for tomorrow. Now it is off to the race briefing and pre-race dinner. All the work is done, time to relax and get ready to race!!!!

Mike and Bob (the chicken) on the practice course

Sarah and I riding down Cactus alley

Lava, Lava, Lava

Paul Mitchell Haul!!!

The Competition