Check In & New Bike Pads

Well, it's officially official!  James and I checked in yesterday and I'm currently sporting a new blue Ironman wristband as I type this.  I gotta tell you, just being down there, even if it was for 40 or so minutes, was downright exciting.  I kept telling myself, "This is awesome!" over and over.  I'm pretty sure I said it out loud a few times too.

For a few weeks, I knew that I wanted new elbow pads for my aero bars and figured, that since my bike store is the only authorized Argon dealer in the city, I would be able to buy some from them.  On Monday, when I went in to make my purchase, I was quickly informed that they had absolutely NONE in the shop.  Uh-oh, nothing like wating for the week before IM to start this kind of stuff.  They told me about a company called Cee Gees that makes replacement pads for all kinds of bars and that I should try them.  Before I did, however, I tried calling around town to track down what I was looking for.  Unfortunately, nobody, NOBODY, had them, so ended up ordering from Cee Gees anyway.  They finally arrived yesterday:

Wow, look at the thickness of those bad boys!  Compare them with this pic taken from a previous blog entry in June:

You know, "they" say that you should never, EVER, try something new for race day, but at this point I have no real choice.  I'll definitely be using these on Sunday, but will be putting my used ones in my bike special needs bag just in case.  If the new ones present some kind of problem that I can't deal with, I will be able to swap them out for the old ones out on the course.  While the old ones are fairly worn, they would more than fine to finish up the race.  I don't plan on stopping for them, but knowing they are in there gives me piece of mind.....and piece of mind when competing in IM is essential.