Pre Race Thoughts

It's the day before the Derby triathlon and all is not going to plan. For starters I've left my swimming trunks in Southport and have no way of getting them before the race.

How I feel right now. If only I'd painted
 this I could afford some decent tri gear.

This means today I'm going to have to get some new ones. Because I can't afford much equipment I was planning to race in my speedos then slip some shorts over the top for the bike/run. This worked fine last time, but with the prospect of buying new trunks I'm wondering if I should upgrade and get some tri shorts? The only problem is there's not enough time to order online and Derby, in all its glory, doesn't have a triathlon shop (potential business idea for any of you Derbians). I've also not had chance yet to get all my stuff together and practice transition as planned, this is definitely needed because it took me about 4 rotations of the sun to get out of T1 last time. So what else has gone wrong apart from equipment? Well my body. My knee's been hurting for the last few days since it gave in on me during a training run. I've attempted to taper this week but it's gone very badly thanks to not feeling well/knee/weather. While I'd never normally accept the weather as an excuse the rain and wind were so extreme that it hurt as it struck my face and with my head facing straight down I nearly cycled into a bollard. So overall I've got a bad knee, I felt much fitter a week ago than I do now, I don't know what I'm taking with me and I've got nothing to swim in. I don't reckon they'd be too impressed if I swam naked so I have to spend some non existent money. Lets just hope this is pre race nerves or something and a solution drops into my lap about swimwear. I'll let you know how it goes and hopefully I'll be much more optimistic come race day and, more importantly, when I cross the finish line.