Since it’s 9:44pm and a very long day, I’ll make this as quick as possible since I have to get to bed but it was a huge and massive day so want to put this out now. If I motivate one person or inspire one person to follow their dreams as what I have done to get to this point, then that is a success so here it is in a first ever bullet format:
- 6:00AM Wake up with English Muffin, Clif Bar Breakfast
- 6:15AM meet Karen downstairs and drive to the only carpark in Kona. Swim from DigMe Beach for 30minutes including 4x100meters at race pace with Fiona and Karen and offering coaching suggestions on sighting, technique, and strategy. Shower on pier and drop stuff off at car
- 7:30AM go to Gold All World Athlete Breakfast (top 1% of all Ironman athletes). There are 520+ (No shit, this is a World Championship). Only 100 maybe were there to the stellar brekky. No meat, but I did have eggs. We saw from Dave Scott, Mark Allen, Peter Reid, and Greg Welsch. The CEO of Ironman was there and thankfully I didn’t have to speak with him! We hung out with Robbo and Megan and heard some great stories from the Legends. I got my photo taken with them and had Mark sign a photo of Fiona and I with him from Challenge Atlantic City 2014; the iron-distance race we did on our 8th day of marriage.
- 11:00AM We headed back to the condo and had a team session. I drove Karen and Fi and our 3 bikes in the back of the Dodge Durango. We headed past the airport towards the first lookout. We did 50minutes hitting some major tailwinds pushing me to 60-65Kph. We did 4 efforts of 90seconds at race pace and then all recovery. Lots of cyclists out there.
- 12:30pm. We were now at the Energy Lab and we ran up to the Queen K and back in towards the end near Sea Horse farms. (yes they are there). The climb isn’t that noticeable but the headwind is at your back and you do heatup and bake there surrounded by the lava rocks. On the decent Fiona asked me “Why are you running so fast?”, yep, race form is coming into shape nicely and we did our 3x90seconds at race pace. We took some photos in our running singlets from the Alice Springs Running and Walking Club and the Alice Springs Running Festival singlets.
- Back at the condo we cleaned up and headed back out to the King K to collect the #teamoz shirts. We had some great fun with that meeting some new faces and receiving a bunch of free gear. Fiona and I had grabbed a water and I noticed Karen Smyers and had a quick chat with her. Another great person, very down to Earth. “Karen Smyers is a triathlete from the United States. She is the 1990 and 1995 ITU Triathlon World Champion as well as the 1995 Ironman World Champion. She was inducted into the Triathlon Hall of Fame in January 2009”. And these are the people you meet while just simply buying a cold one. How awesome is this friggen sport?!!!
- 5pm We headed down Alii Drive in the Parade of Nations, saw Mom, Tony, Mum, Jacinta, and Jock. It actually made me a bit emotional and gave me a small sense of the feeling I’ll have on Saturday. It was another opportunity to say thanks for having the opportunity to be there. Turia Pitt was just behind us. Amazing.
- The parade finished with Pete Murray announcing us and me calling out Alice Springs. We headed through the expo, got some more free stuff, and decided on a future purchase I’ll reveal soon. Then we saw a line, Rhinny! I wish I had the picture of us that I wanted signed, also from Challenge USA but instead we waited in line, got photos and an autograph. And like many of the pro’s I met, Rhinny is All CLASS!
- 7PM, We found Jacinta and back to the Kona Inn with the family for dinner. Unfortunately, the menu was the same as the other day. I went with the Caesar salad and the fresh spearfish sandwhich since there were no other meat-free dishes. It was good and we all just chatted about our stories so far from the island and life in general.
- So now its 10:05pm and I’m going to bed. I hope you are enjoying these updates as there is no place like Kona.
Tucson Athlete 