B2B Friday

B2B Friday So I got to Wilmington at 7 am Friday after maybe 3 hours of sleep. That sleep occurred off the side of the road at some dumpy old restaurant near the state line. I should have left for Wilmington at 8 pm and gone interstate as much as possible and gotten there about 2 am. Then slept 2 to 10 am.  Anyhow, I drove around downtown awhile then parked way out from downtown on a free (no parking meters or restrictions) street. Walked around downtown and used the bathroom at Cape Fear Community College. Went back and slept for a few hours but not well. Got back downtown to the convention center at 11:45 and the packet pickup line was long. missed the noon athlete meeting. So with time to kill i shopped at the expo. Got valve extenders for my spare tubular (the spare may have been useless otherwise). Got some special Yankz shoelaces and a Powergel (Kona flavored).  The shoelaces were to replace regular ones on my Asics shoes I might wear on Saturday.  So I went into the ballroom for the 2 pm athlete meeting at about 1:30 and sat at a big round table. I talked to a lady from Raliegh NC. She was going to do her first 70.3 race.  The meeting from 2 to 3:30 ish.  Drove to T1 or Wrightsville Beach. Took 30 minutes due to heavy traffic and construction on the draw bridge to the island.  Unloaded and prepared the bike. Lubed the recently cleaned chain and pumped the tires to 110 psi. Went and racked the bike and walked around trying to visualize how I would run in and where my bike would be amongst the 2200 bikes.  Drove back to the downtown area and walk to convention center (with a duffle bag containing all my stuff for T2 and then some)  at about 5:30 pm. I went to the athlete dinner (4 to 6 pm). It was while the 5 pm athlete meeting was occurring so the place was packed full of people.  It was a great buffet style meal. Pasta, some grilled chicken etc Realized I had to turn in my T2 bag by the 6pm cutoff. Got it in at 5:58 I think.  I chose my Zoot shoes and hoped they would be ok for a marathon. Went back to buffet and ate more dessert.  Left and got to truck about 6:30 pm and headed to hotel. Had to check in, unload all my bags to the room. I relaxed a bit but still had to pack T1 bag and organize for the morning. Watched some TV and got on Internet. Set alarms for 3:30 and after.   Didn't get to bed til midnight. Bad me.