Thanks so much for all your responses so far - it's so great just to "hear" your virtual voices of support. I realize more and more that I trained for my first marathon in a group, and that made such a difference for me to have others around. Training all alone really makes me realize how much I appreciate others. Even if the others are on the net!

The idea that our brain prepares us for what we think is ahead is very interesting to me. In fact, one of the factors that turned me off from completing the 1/2 IM was the knowledge that there would be a HUGE hill on the loop around for 1.5 miles, and I hadn't anticipated that pre-race, not living in the race area. Unfortunately, I live across the "pond" from the IM UK course, so I won't be able to even look at the general area until 2 days before. It's 1.5 hours or so west of London. But perhaps there will be some way to drive the course. Would it be a crazy idea to bike the run course 2 days before? Probably.

Luckily, I've completed 2 marathons before, so I have an idea of that distance mentally.

I don't have aero bars. My thought being, I don't really picture myself doing this again, so why shell out the extra money when I'm slow anyway. Maybe a self-defeating thought process. Do you all think it would make a big difference?

I have used a run-walk system before with success on the 2 marathons. In fact, it feels like I'm the same speed on 10 miles or more whether or not I walk 1, run 4 or just run. Go fig. It sounds smart to plan to use that system on the IM.

I wore a tri suit under my wetsuit for the 1/2 IM and kept it for the whole race. Running Mommy, do you think it would make more sense to change clothes for the IM transitions (I'm thinking nice padded bike shorts), or just keep the tri suit on to save time?

I was 1/2 hour from the time cutoff for the swim, and 9 minutes from the time cutoff for the bike in the 1/2 IM, for what that's worth.

I'm sure there were questions I've forgotten to address, and I'll get back to those in another post. Thanks again for your responses! They already help so much!

IGH