IMH Race Report

Sorry for the delay, but I inadvertently posted my race report on my team site rather than here. You can find it here:

Blog.bostontriathonteam.com

Day Four and Five....and Six

It's been a busy last few days...and I've been a bit neglectful in my postings.  Race day is tomorrow and I began feeling a bit under the weather yesterday afternoon.  Obviously not an ideal time to start feeling bad, but I'm doing my best to cope with it.  It just feels like a cold coming on....scratchy throat, etc.  My bike and race bags are down at transition.  I'm getting ready to eat dinner and get my final things ready.  I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that I feel better and not worse tomorrow.  Oh well...it is what it is.  This race is the icing on the cake.  I'm going to do my best to enjoy it...no matter how I feel.  Anyway, this will be the last post until post race.  Hopefully Madame Pele will be kind to me on Saturday.

As for the last couple of days, I thought I'd do a little photo montage:

Wednesday morning swim with my coach, Chris Thomas and a few others from Team Timex-

Matt and Shay up early on Wednesday after arriving on Tuesday-

The famous "Coffees of Hawaii" floating espresso bar-

Wednesday night couples cookout at the Sea Village-

Tuesday morning swim with Tim and Matt....trying out the new Blue Seventy textile suit-

The boys getting ready for the Kona Underpants Run (is that Fun Pokress?)-

The Guru, shined up and ready to go (more so than it's owner:))-

Sporting the limited edition BTT polos.  Do we get Powerbar Points for this?-

BTTers at the welcome banquet-

Ahoha!

-P

Day Three

Day three is in the books.  It was a busy day that started with another open water swim.  Today the floating espresso bar was set up, so I stopped on the way back in for a coffee.  Nothing like finishing a swim with a coffee.

After the swim we spotted some strange guy wading into the water in full garb.  He looked like he was chanting something.  I think he spotted me snapping his photo.  Nothing like a photo-op!

  I hit up the ART tent for another round of treatment after the swim.  I got registration out of the way....#1206.  And, finally, I picked up my Blue Seventy PTZ3 suit for the swim.  Whew...and that was all before 10:30.  I topped off the tank and took my bike out for a quick 40 minute swim.  I immediately had some mechanical issues...but my personal mechanic, Brian Hughes, had them ironed out quickly.  Let me say this...it is freakin' hot here.  Real hot.  I don't care what the news and papers say....they're saying 84-85....it's closer to 100 with the humidity.  Saturday should be fun!

Tonight we hit the ironman parade and the expo.  We ran into the Infinit guys who we're giving out t-shirts to the US athletes during the parade.

The expo was a zoo.  Lot's of cool vendors set up....Zipp, Scott, Kestrel...a virtual who's who of the triathlon industry.  We did all we could just to get through the masses.  If you're wondering what the difference is between an ironman and THE ironman in Kona....well, you typically don't get a full-on DJ spinning at LP....like you do in Kona!

Another early wakeup call

Well, I was out cold at 9pm, but still awake by 4:30. I'm hoping to really get caught up with sleep tonight. Today is the day that I really want to dial things in...and start to get mentally ready to race. The day looks like this:

1) early swim
2) register
3) visit the ART (active release therapy) tent
4) visit the IM store
5) 40 min bike
6) rest/welcome the Pokress' to kona
7) go watch the IM parade
8) visit the expo and demo days

It's a full day. Report to come...

Day Two

Up at 4am today.  At least it was a half hour later than yesterday!  Tapply and I headed down to "Dig Me" beach around 7am.  The place was definitely busier than yesterday.  I swam for about 40 or so minutes.  I felt good for about 20.  My body is still fatigued from lack of sleep.  I did see a manta ray for the first time.  Afterwards, Brian Hughes came by our condo and put our bikes together.  I was happy to see that it was in one piece out of the bike box.  Tim and I were going to go for a short ride, but all of us decided to head out for an exploration drive instead.  We headed toward Captain Cook and saw some amazing views.

Our first stop was St. Benedict's "painted church".  I've been wanting to stop by here for a while.  It was pretty neat.

 We then stopped by a Hawaiian state park (I can't even begin to pronounce the name).  The park had a tour of the ancient Hawaiian culture.  We then headed back into the hills of Kona and stopped by Greenwell Coffee Farm to order some peaberry coffee to be shipped back to Boston.  The stuff is awesome!  After a quick rest, Jenn and I headed out to dinner for our anniversary (7th).  We went to a place called Huggos.  The food was okay, but the view was awesome.  If you ever wonder why Kona is such a special place, here's why:

 -P

Day One

Well, day one is just about in the books.  Other than a complete lack of sleep, it was pretty uneventful.  As I mentioned in my last post, I was up at 3am. I wound up doing my planned 45 minute run around 6:30am.  Lots of people out on Alii Drive.  The run went okay.  I felt decent, all things considered.  I just did an out and back. On my way back I rolled up on a guy running in full Scott gear.  Not sure if he was a pro or not, but he wasn't happy w/me passing him.  He hung on my shoulder after my pass....which was towards the end of my run.  I did one up tempo effort of about 60 seconds and that was all she wrote.  I was completely dead after that.  I'll attribute that to my lack of sleep....hopefully:)  All in all, around 7:00-7:10 pace for approx. 7 miles.  Jenn and I headed down to "Dig Me" beach so I could get in a quick swim.  A swim wasn't on my plan, but I wanted to jump in for a very, very short swim, just to loosen up...not to mention, it's awesome to swim in the harbor (a virtual aquarium).  On our way down we got passed by Heather Fuhr and Chris Legh doing a cooldown run.  We also saw a bunch of pros down by the swim venue.  I also ran into Psycho team member, Roger Little.  We always seem to run into him at races.  He invited us to go marlin fishing on Thursday...but I had to pass.  Thursday is a little too close to the race for me.  God forbid I get motion sickness.  He may try to go on Wednesday instead.  If he does, I'm IN!  After the quick swim, we made our way back to the condo, w/a ritual stop at Lava Java.  The place was buzzing, as usual.  Much like last year, Scott Bikes must have a deal w/Lava Java to set up a showroom in and around the place.  It's pretty damn cool.  I spent the rest of the day watching football and trying to relax.  I'm picking up Tim Tapply from the airport in an hour or so.  He and his wife are staying with us (although his wife doesn't get in until Wednesday).  We didn't get too many pictures today.  But, we did get a good one of the sun setting last night (after a few hours of rain):

I'll leave you with a shot from our lanai:

Until tomorrow.

-P

We've Arrived!

Up at 3:00am on Saturday....2 six hour flights...and we finally landed in Kona around 2pm "kona" time. All of our luggage (and bike) made it...thank you!!! We did our first round of grocery shopping...$230 bill!....ouch!....yes, it's more expensive here. And, as much as I tried not to, I was asleep just before 7pm. It's now 4am and I've been up since 3am. I'll have to try to get back on schedule tonight so I'm no waking up this early every day. Our condo is okay...nothing great...except the view. We're actually next door to our condo from last year. Know what that means? Crappy Internet! Fortunately, Jenn has a wireless card this year, so I should be able to post regularly. This post, however, is being done from the iPad...so I'm keeping it short. I'll post more later, once we really settle in ( we haven't even been into town yet). Just to make everyone jealous...I'm listening to the waves crash on the rocks in the dark outside our condo:-)

-P

This was a bright idea...

In retrospect, I should have booked a Sunday flight, and given myself one full day to get ready to fly out to Kona.  But....WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING....booking a 6am flight on Saturday morning.  I was just informed our car service to the airport arrives at 3:45am.  WTF.  Next post from the Big Island...