Will I Survive It?

The count down has begun. Only 6 more sleeps (that's how we judge time with Lucy) until my big triathlon in San Francisco. 1 mile swim, 25 mile bike, and 6 mile run. Lots of anxiety going on about this race. First worry: the pool here on base has been broken down for over 2 weeks. The boilers actually broke a couple months ago, but they were still letting people swim as long as the temperature was over 65 degrees (for those of you wondering, yes....that is very, very cold to swim in). 2 weeks ago the temp. stayed below 65 and they haven't opened in up since then. They've been saying the boilers will be fixed any day now, but I call every morning and no progress. So, I haven't swam for a while. Yikes! Second worry: I have to find a wetsuit. When I tell people from California that we're swimming in the San Francisco Bay in November, they jump back in horror and exclaim that they would never, ever do that (making me feel very confident). The tough part is that I live 2 1/2 hours from the coast and I'm having a hard time finding places that rent wet suits and I don't have $200 bucks to pay for one. I called places in San Francisco and they all tell me that I really need to try one on before the race and they can't be sure they'll have one for me if I wait until I get there. My third worry also has to do with the swim in the ocean. I've had people ask me if I've practiced swimming in the waves (I'm tempted to reply, "Oh...I have my own personal wave pool in the backyard. I'm set!"). Hopefully it won't take me two years to do the swim.
Jason left this afternoon for a Jr. Officer conference in San Diego, so I'm on my own with the kids. I've got to try and find a sitter while I go to a place in town to swim a couple times to gain some confidence in that department. It should be interesting!
The best part of the week comes on Thursday. My brother, Blaine, is competing with me in the triathlon, so he and my mom and dad are flying in! We'll drive to San Francisco on Friday and compete on Saturday. We're so excited to have them here!
Even though I'm extremely nervous for the race, I'm really excited, too. There's going to be a lot of people competing to qualify for the Olympics, so it should be neat. Blaine and I will be a couple hours behind them, but oh well! Pray for us....we're going to need all the help we can get!