Ready, Set, Go.....

Today was race day and I was not as nervous and uptight as I thought I would be. I was actually way more relaxed then I thought I would be. The weather appeared to be holding for us...which was the huge stress point for me the previous week. If the weather held, then I knew that I would be able to finish my race under the 7 hour mark.

Our team shuttle was picking up the 40/50K striders and the 25K striders and skaters at 7:15am. We were all down in the restaurant at 6am. And a short 1hour and 15minutes later we were on the bus. After a small fiasco with trying to figure out where to drop off the 40/50K striders, we were let off and we had less than one hour to wait for our race to start. The 40/50K striders were to start at the high school at 9am and the 25K skiers were to start further down the course at the same time. The 40/50K skaters were to start at 10am and they were going to be shuttled to the starting location after we left. We were being given the extra time b/c we are slower and we needed the advantage of having the tracks as in tack as possible for as long as possible. The skaters were very potentially going to be skiing over our tracks and making our life a bit more difficult for us. We were being given an unofficial start time, but they would be recording our finish times for us.

While we were standing there a man from the race came to tell us about the course; where the icey patches were, how long it would take the skaters to catch us, that on one steep hill there were medics at the bottom just in case anyone in the race needed them, that the Iditarod sled teams had skied through the trails and there might be droppings left behind, and finally that there would be 5K markers all throughout the course informing us of our progress towards the finish line. All this news felt overwhelming and started to make me more nervous! I kept calling Melissa and Doug to get there b/c I was worried about them missing the start of the race...plus it would be good for me to see them before I took off. They made it in plenty of time to get some pictures and to see my teammates and I take off.

And the race begins......