Ryan Bickerstaff

I’m sitting in my room at the Extended Stay Deluxe in Portland right now…well, actually it’s in Hillsboro, OR, but the race course is about 1:15 from the airport and only 30-45 minutes from where I’m at now. Despite waiting until the last minute, I got a really good deal on Hotwire for this room with a kitchen and everything - $56/night!

It was really easy traveling here today. From leaving my home to getting checked in at the airport only took about 45 minutes. Since my flight wasn’t leaving until just after noon, I was also able to sleep in a bit more than the normal pre-race flight, which was a good thing, since for some reason I haven’t been going to bed until after midnight the past week. I need to work on getting to bed earlier, but I was still getting 9 hours of sleep or so, so it’s not terribly bad.

Anyway, this was my first time on Alaska/Horizon Airlines, and so far, they’ve been pretty incredible. My bike box was actually waiting for me by the time I got to baggage claim (rather than wait an extra 30 minutes for it to come out last)! Plus, they had free beer and wine on the plane…I didn’t take advantage on the way here but might have to on the way home. Oh, and they only charge $50 for the bike each way pretty much regardless of the weight. That’s pretty amazing since some airlines are charging more than $100 each way these days…almost more than the plane ticket itself!

I’m finally starting to feel rested enough for the race. I’ve taken the past few days really, really easy, as I think I was a little too fatigued over the weekend. I did about 30 minutes of swimming on Monday, 30 minutes total of biking/running on Tuesday, 30 minutes swimming on Wednesday, and an easy 30 minute jog after I got here this afternoon. The swim is pretty much going to determine whether my race goes great or not, and I feel like the biking and running training take away from my swimming sharpness. so, hopefully my whole body is rested and ready to go on Saturday. I was feeling kind of flat in the water on Monday and Wednesday, but in today’s jog I felt really relaxed and loose and fresh. With one more day to rest up for the race, I think I should be ready to go.

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