Thursday, October 9, 2014

Kona 2014 - Day 7 Update

Tuesday of ironman week and this would turn out to be one of the busiest days of our trip so far.  I haven't been too successful with getting some down time but wasn't stressing out too much about that just yet.

The day started out with a ride with the IMTalk taper camp crew out to the airport.  I had ridden the last 50km of the bike course back into town along the Queen K but this was an opportunity to ride the first 25km or so, which took us on a couple of loops through town before climbing Palani Rd and turning onto the Queen K.  The route would follow the highway all the way north to Hawi before turning back and returning to Kona.

Today, however we were just going as far as the airport and it was a good opportunity to check out the loops in town. 

At the airport our groupetto turned back to town and I let them carry on as I had other things to do.  Yes, virtually out in the middle of nowhere I had an appointment with a writer from Triathlon and Multisport magazine who was wanting to interview me for their Kona special.  They were looking for Aussie residents and so I was naturally happy to oblige.  We were to meet out at the Energy Lab and so I stopped there to wait.



While I was waiting I got chatting to three guys who had ridden out to the Energy Lab and were taking their photos at the entrance.  They had each done one or more ironmans themselves, although never raced in Kona, and had flown in from Alabama to volunteer for the weekend.  After establishing that their flight across actually took longer than our flight from Sydney I was even more impressed by their dedication to the cause, and told them so.  That a bunch of triathletes would travel that distance simply to volunteer is a credit to the triathlon community as a whole and yet another reason why I love this sport so much.

Interview done I headed back to the condo and St Pete and I walked down to get me registered.  This was a well oiled machine, with plenty of volunteers interested only in making any stressed athlete's day that much better.  Nothing was a problem and all went smoothly until I discovered I needed St Pete's US phone number and he hadn't been allowed to come into registration with me (to cut down on congestion I guess).  I had to go out a couple of times to try and find him (3rd time lucky) but it was sorted out pretty easily and everyone was relaxed and, it seemed, living in the land of Disney...  The lady who guided me to the registration desk was wearing a large padded Mickey Mouse glove (seriously!) and I couldn't help asking her if I had arrived in Disneyland.

Ah well, this is America after all...



Registration done and it was time to check out the expo, which had just opened.  Unfortunately the temperature was soaring and so it was more of a sprint rather than a wander around.  With little shelter around we tended to skip any booths that didn't immediately catch our attention or offer food or drink to sample!  We did, however, make good use of the limited time, scoring some free yurbuds, getting 3 pairs of goggles for the price of 2 and picking up a Kona 2014 limited edition bikini from Betty Designs.


By that stage it was time for the highlight of the day.  Dad was due to touch down in Kona and Dave had gone to pick him up and take him to his hotel, right by the finish line.  We therefore grabbed a bite to eat and went and sat in the relative cool of the hotel foyer to wait for him.


The day, however, was far from over!  After the excitement of seeing dad it was time to head to the Team Kiwi afternoon tea.  This has been a longstanding tradition arranged by Ironman New Zealand and they use this as an opportunity to present T-Shirts to the team which we could then wear in the Parade of Nations that evening.

First of all, though, we're talks by kiwi pros Gina Crawford, Bevan Docherty and Terenzo Bozzone and it was great to have th opportunity to talk to them afterwards and get a couple of photos taken.  Such a groupie!  We also had a team photo done and everyone was in great spirits. Proud to have made it to the island and looking forward to representing New Zealand on Saturday.


Our final event for the day was the Parade of Nations and this was a very cool experience.  We lined up in our teams in the carpark of the King Kam Hotel and then paraded down Ali'i Drive while thousands of supporters lined the streets and cheered us on.


Now I know what the Commonwealth and Olympic teams feel like - a great atmosphere and it was very humbling to be a part of ... little ol' me, given the opportunity to represent my country, is something I never thought I'd be doing a few years ago.


So, a pretty long day and severely lacking in downtime. But that's OK, things will slow down over the next couple of days so it's all good.

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