July 25 - The Warm Up

Just signed up for the Music City Triathlon! The course I'm doing is called a Sprint and is half as long as the Nation's Triathlon. I've never done a triathlon before so the whole point of this is to know what to expect in September. The Music City Tri will help with my transitions- the phases of the race in between the swim, bike, and run (often overlooked during training)- as well as familiarize me with the day-of events and will diagnose areas that need work before the Big Race in September.
FUN FACT: We'll be swimming in the Cumberland River. The same Cumberland river I watched police pull a dead body out of last September! I hope they've disinfected.

The Music City Triathlon is made a big move to downtown Nashville in 2009. Based on rave reviews, the event will be in the same location with the same courses for 2010. Team Magic has managed the Music City Triathlon since 2006, but it has been around for 32 years in 2010.

As for the basics - the event is staged on the east side of the Cumberland River in the area around LP Field, home of the NFL Tennessee Titans. The swim will be in the Cumberland River, starting and finishing from the east side - not a point to point swim, but a rectangular type course. Thanks to TDOT - the bike course will be a two-loop 20k course totaling 40k on Ellington Parkway, which is a short hop from the stadium on downtown streets. Ellington Parkway will be completely closed to traffic during the event. The run course will be a two-loop 5k course totaling 10k of running a nice mix of the east side and the west side of the river in the downtown business district.

 Again, the generosity has been awesome! Here are a few awards:

The Perfect Strangers Award: This goes back to "It's not what you know, it's who you know" and in this case it's "... who you know, who knows who you know." A huge thank you to Mike Iriarte who donated all the way from San Fransisco and has worked with Team in Training as well. Also, an enormous appreciation for the donation by Fred McDaniel. Obviously when people you've never met are kind enough to help it hits you by complete surprise. Thanks guys! I'm not sure who wants to be Cousin Balki and who wants to be Larry Appleton. Cousin Balki was an 80's comic sensation, so you all can fight over that.

Rhonda Hodges even surprised me with an awesome donation late last week as well.One Thanksgiving during college, Rhonda and the rest of the Hodges were kind enough to take me in! This was after my own family told me that Thanksgiving was going to be celebrated at the beach, but there weren't enough frequent flier miles to get me there. 
The infamous Kate Miller checked in with a sweet donation! Have you seen Kate's impression of Marla Hooch from A League of Their Own? You're in for a treat! I love Kate. I love her long time.

Thanks for reading! Visit MY FUNDRAISING PAGE- it's where all the magic happens.