Here it is down to the last 7 days before the big race (well, it’s big to me anyway), and I’m not nervous yet. As I’ve said before, I’m looking forward to the fun part. I missed it last year and feel like the race owes me a good time.

I did my last long run today (it really wasn’t long, only 6 miles…short compared to the 18 mile Sunday a few weeks back) and a 2-3 hour HR#2 bike ride yesterday followed by a 2 mile run. Bill and I decided to ride together and Larry was going to go too, but got waylaid with school activities.

It didn’t seem to be Bill’s day. First, we were going to meet at KCC, park in the parking lot, and do the Wayland loop. When we got there, they were sealcoating the lot, so we drove to our house on Green Street. Bill had pumped his tires before the ride and had a flat on the back. He tried to pump it with his tire pump, blew a seal on that, so he started out with a repair job in the driveway using Jean’s pump.

We got on the road late and Bill had taped his mouth shut with duct tape so he wouldn’t say something dumb and make the Sunday e-mail column for the umpteenth time. We got to the spot on M-179 where Bill, Larry and I had seen the beaver that got hit by a car some weeks back. Bill was riding behind me, so I turned my head and innocently said “Watch out for beavers”. Bill had taken the tape off by then so he could breathe, and said “You’re not baiting me into saying anything!”. I really hadn’t intended to, but I saw the reasoning behind his reaction and got a little chuckle out of his comment.

It wasn’t five minutes later, when we were riding up the short hill just past Patterson, and Bill said, “There’s a hot chick behind us, but I’ll bet she’s married”. Jean had taken off about 25 minutes before we did, so Bill assumed he saw her in his rear view mirror. I turned and saw a rider quite a distance back, so we slowed and waited for the rider to catch up.

I caught the approach out of the corner of my eye so I turned and smiled at who I thought was going to be Jean. It turned out to be a pretty good sized guy that looked something like Randall Bertrand who said “Where are you guys headed?”. I told him we were doing a loop through Wayland and stifled a laugh. When Bill heard his voice, I could see his head drop and hear him say “Damn!!”.

Now Bill tells me he made a mistake thinking it was Jean, but I think he was trying to bait me into saying something cute like, “Hey, you want to _ _ _ _ ?”. You’ve heard the true stories about Bill before. You be the judge.

This is the last e-mail I plan to send out until after the race. I know you will all be thinking of me on race day. So next Sunday, at around 8:45 CDT, say a little prayer so I make it past that demon on McCoy Road. I plan to be extra careful which may slow me down some, but hopefully will help me make it through in one piece. Jean will have my cell phone, and may be relaying race reports. You can also follow the race on http://www.ironmanlive.com/ and see how John, Larry and I are doing. Remember, this race isn’t just about me. John Hopkins and Larry Etter are in the best shape I’ve ever seen them in and have worked as hard or harder than me. I expect they will be at the finish line sipping Margaritas long before I get done.

I will be thinking of all of you (with +- 7 hours on the bike, you have lots of time to fill). When I don’t feel like I can take one more step on the run, I’ll expect you to will me the strength to not give up.

Just (Don’t Fall Off The Bike) Jack