Pasta Party!

Thursday 9th October

2 days to go – that was my first thought when I awoke at 4.30am, can’t believe it, only 2 days, as it was 13 months ago when I got my qualification slot, it wasn’t quite real then but reality is definitely biting now !
Had breakfast and was out at 7am to go down for the organised swim. Wow – how many people are here today! You can hardly get a space to change and the swim bag drop has ran out of bags – its busy, busy, busy and even more so in the water. Today was a really good sighting swim for me as every other stroke I took I had to look just to make sure that I wasn’t going to head butt someone who was swimming in the opposite direction. Best bit about the swim today was seeing the dolphins, they appeared and swam with everyone for a few minutes before disappearing off into the distant. Oh and forgot to mention when swimming 2 days ago I noticed a sign on the bottom of the sea bed which said “Kona 100% coffee” and an arrow pointing straight on – strange I thought until just up ahead I saw lots of swimmers bobbing around in the water by a boat which just happened to be serving coffee – how cool is that, it’s just a pity it won’t be there on race day, could have used that as an excuse for my swim time!
Got showered, changed and checked out the pier as transition was being built up – scary! Paid another visit to the physio tent to get my hamstring stretched out (still playing up, but don’t know whether it’s just pre race jitters now messing with my head!), saw Michelle again, she stretched me a bit then called her colleague over, who proceeded to also treat me a little, I must have looked a bit concerned as she was reassuring me that all was well and my hamstring was just a bit tight.
After finishing up there we went and got breakfast at ‘Uncle Bills’ and then went round the expo for a while, saw all the swanky new bikes, Cervelo’s P4, the latest Look, and a Fuji bike which was different from anything I had seen before. Next stop was ‘Lava Java’ as Nick had read that free fuel belts were being giving away to all competitors, I managed to get a pink one (well least it will go with my tri-suit) and Nick picked up a red coloured one. It’s great out here (as well as being 25+ degrees and sunny) as all the brands/manufacturers give away lots of stuff free in hope that you will wear it during the race and then they can advertise their product as the most worn such and such at Kona, very cute, but I’m not complaining one bit!
Walked back up to the condo, made lunch and sat out on the balcony watching the world (well sea) go by.
At 5.15pm we headed down to the welcome banquet and athlete briefing, this was at the King Kamehameha Kona Beach Hotel. After eating our food (lots of veggie stuff) the show began, first there was a short show with dancers & music about the history of Hawaii and about the fire of the Island and the spiritual side of being here. Next was the Ironman welcoming videos, as this is the 30th anniversary there was a lot of stuff on the beginning of the IM race back in 1978 when only 15 competitors took part – how things have changed! They then got the oldest & youngest competitors up (Male was 79 and 18 and Female was 72 and 18). The whole event was very enjoyable (apart when the President of IM told all the new timers that the course was ‘Brutal’ but to try and enjoy it !) Briefing was the same as all the other IM race briefings. Left at 9.00pm and got the bus back to our condo, went straight to bed.