Paul arrives...

Up AGAIN early, 6:55 am, no alarm, felt good that my yearbook white paper stuff was over. It was a lot of work, very mentally challenging. Beneficial though, it got my head back into the yearbook business.

I did have a brief conversation with Bill to discuss my yearbook document and about 5 minutes into it he got a call from his wife, there was an injury she had and he had to go. Turns out she chipped off half her tooth playing hockey. I knew she was a shorter distance triathlete, now I learn she's a hockey player too. The plot thickens.

This morning I did a little work on the caricature website and RCM. I made some additional design changes, hopefully the final ones. By 10:30 I left to get registered. The expo was fairly small, more like a grass roots race than an Ironman. The check in was standard, here's some forms, sign the forms, here's your timing chip, your goodie bag and you're registered.

There was only about 6 tents at the expo and it was cold outside and windy outside, in fact Burlington was warmer than Las Vegas today. I forgot to bring a coat, then I see these Team Canada jackets walking around and I realized I should have wore mine. Doh!!!

I saw a couple of Team Canada jackets, I went over and said hi, it turned out to be the team managers. Next stop was the tents. I picked up some electrolytes, salt tablets, sports drink. Then I stopped at the clothing tent and dropped $258 and pretty much got one of everything. I bought a white jacket, I asked a couple of different people and each thought the white looked good. I need Alice with me, I no longer have a fashion sense, I think I lost it about 20 years ago. I wasn't sure about the white but went with it anyways.

Next stop was lunch at Del Taco for a couple of 5 lb burritos and then back to the room to work on my RCM some more as I waited for Paul to arrive at 3 pm. I was picking him up.

I got Paul, took the long way back to the hotel and hung out as he put his bike together. He has one of those cases, like John Barclay uses, that you have to take apart a lot of the bike. It's not an easy process to un-assembled, pack and unpack and then reassemble. Tonight's dinner plan was to hook up with Barb and Jamie at the Palazzo and go for dinner at Wolfgang Pucks' Cut. Jamie said it was the number two ranked steak house. Paul was invited but hung back to get his bike assembled and relax a bit.

Driving the the hotel was awful. Traffic was bad. I ended up showing up 30 minutes late. I felt bad that they were waiting for me, I think it caused at least Jamie and Barb at least one additional bottle of wine to be drank.

The food was very good, all except for the bone marrow. Jamie heard it was good and ordered some. It was sickening bad. I have no idea how people could give high regards to the bone marrow. It was a good meal and good to hook up with Jamie and Barb. They were doing Vegas right, lots of walking, I think they walked about 4 hours that day.

When the bill came I almost fell off my seat. Three people, nothing special and it was $750. Ughhh.... It was a great meal but when the bill is that big if forces you to get critical. I was going to pay, I owed them a meal, I had no idea it was going to be $900 with tip. Jamie ended up paying, thanks goodness. I'll reciprocate with 3 good meals in Burlington. Alice would have freaked with a $900 bill. Thank you Jamie and Barb.

After dinner Jamie asked if I wanted to go for a walk and have a cigar, I almost said yes. I forgot for a split second that I had a race on Saturday, then I remember I told Paul I'd be back around 7:30 pm to give him the truck to pick something up to eat. Unfortunately I had to bail, I felt bad dinning and dashing.

When I got back to the room it turned out Paul ordered a pizza, I don't blame him, he's still on Eastern Time and I was later than I thought I'd be. We ended up talking, or I ended up talking and Paul listening, poor guy, until past 11 pm. That was around 2 am in the morning for Paul.

Tomorrow's a big day, lots to do.

No Training - Taper.