Two more sleeps before Ironman Austria!

After a good night of sleep, we headed to the swim start/race venue (about 5K away) from our flat and got in our last pre-race swim before race day. Friday is typically a "day off" for us (and our athletes) before an A-race so we reserve this day to be incredibly lazy before the big event day and to attend to some pre-race to do's. Also, with our 3 hours of training on Thursday, we finally woke up our body and Friday felt great for just an EZ 25 minute swim to get more comfortable in the water and in our wetsuit. The water feels great and the weather is amazing!

The finish line area is like an arena with a huge big screen TV and stadium seating. Of course, we pass the finish line area at least 3 times while we are running so this finish chute will be super exciting when we finally get to end our 140.6 mile journey here on Sunday. 

How exciting to meet Faris!

We are huge fans of this professional triathlete super star! He was super nice. 

I am so excited for this bike course - it has a bit of everything I love in a bike course - fast sections, climbs, beautiful views and well, 112 miles of being on my bike!

We do 90K, two times while passing by the transition area in between the two loops. 

After stretching, chillaxing and packing my transition bags, Karel and I decided to go to the pasta dinner to see what it was like in another country. Typically I use the two nights before the race as my pizza night before an endurance race but instead, I had a small dinner before the pasta party so I didn't arrive hungry and so that I could eat familiar food for my two nights before the race meal.

The Irondome was packed with people and the evening was great with a lot of chatting with new people, pasta that Karel enjoyed a lot (meat on the left side, meat-free on the right side) and sharing the pre-race excitement with everyone in the room. 

I just LOVE the mineral water (left) in Europe! 

I'm really enjoying this entire Ironman experience in Austria and I can't believe that I will be sharing my 8th IM experience with 3000 other athletes on Sunday and making memories with my amazing hubby Karel!

Here are some stats for our race:
3000 registered athletes
12% female athletes 
61 nations represented 
99 Americans
100,000 spectators planned to be on the closed race course
2500 volunteers
54 women in 30-34 age group (my AG)
475 males in 35-39 age group (Karel's AG)