B2B Saturday part 1

B2B Saturday, part 1 Got up at 3:40 am and began the frantic activity. Ate a Powerbar and started a banana. had a good bathroom movement and hoped that would be all til at least I was done with the swim.  Putting on my tri suit was easy. Putting on my wetsuit is very hard. I use mineral oil to help it slide on.  It is very tight. I put on an old hooded sweatshirt and old shoes too. The hoody and shoes would be abandoned at the beach for donation for Goodwill (not sure the shoes would be wanted though). Got my T1 bag and special needs bike bag and duffle bag for after. Drove downtown parking on a unrestricted street. Walk down to the Hilton at 5:15. Get on a bus and sit next to a lady from Denmark. She was temporary living with her husband in Virginia due to his work. She had torn ligaments in her shoulder but still wanted to race before she had her surgery.   Her goal was 15 hours.  Got to T1. Our bus nearly got hit as it did a 3 point Uturn in the street. I handed in my T1 bag and then my spec needs bag. It only had a can of Walmart brand chocolate shake like a Slim-Fast.  Had to Go no 1 so I hit a portapotty.  Had to undo wetsuit arms do my business and struggle to get arms back in suit.  Got on a trolley car for the beach. I was the last one on this car unfortunately as I will explain.  I think it was 6:15 at this point.  Sat next to a guy from Florida who wasn't used to the cold temperature. We talked about this and other races.  So anyway this trolly had NO WINDOWS! The announcer at T1 who kept yelling at us to go get on a shuttle bus/trolly said they were all heated. So the nice breeze as we traveled in the 38 degree air was just great!!!!  And then the driver took a wrong turn at the island and finally someone told him. We got going back in right direction again. 6:30 or so drop off at beach area. 1 hour to go. Went where there was three big propane heater units and some non athlete guys could not get them to start or at least two wouldn't. I got into it and got one of them (with missing knob) to start after reading the directions. It did not heat well. Worked on another one with another athlete and it got going after 10 minutes of work.  Bladder was starting to feel full, but was not going to remove my wetsuit. I was in a crowd of people. Stage fright. I had to put myself in a zen like trance while leaning against the box van (Goodwill) just a certain way.  After 5-10 minutes success. It was a wonderful feeling. But now my shoes were wet so not so good. This is a rare occasion when it is acceptable to pee in your pants. You have to grab those opportunities! At about 7:20 or 7:25 the officials began herding us toward the beach start area. We walked about 3 minutes thru the dunes to get there. I took off my shoes and hoody and ran up to the other athletes in the huddle but turned around and got my shoes and coat back on. This was during the time they were saying a prayer and then the national anthem. It was so cold!  In a few minutes I took them off again and the starting horns sounded. I was near the back of the pack but didn't care. Off into the water I went.