This morning Thomas and I headed down to the pier for a swim. The trick is to get there before 7 am before all of the crazy people arrive. Full on crazy people that I am convinced have never swum in open water before. I disqualified the following people during the swim:
Anyone wearing compression socks
Anyone wearing fins
Anyone treading water at the first buoy
Anyone breaststroking more than 2 yards
Anyone that uses running into people as their method of sighting
Pretty much I disqualified most of the people out there swimming.
We headed out to the far buoy and got away from the antsy crowds of athletes. Again, the water was beautiful. Imagine swimming through schools of fish of bright yellows, blues and silver. And then, 30 feet below you see 12 dolphins swim by in formation.
I also had a first today – my first (dozen) jellyfish sting! We were swimming through them like little cloudy bubbles in the water. I felt my forearm sting and pinch. Coming back one got my nose!
After the swim it was off to the A.R.T. tent to have my back, glute, hip – actually you could throw a dart at my body and work on that part today. I am saving hundreds of dollars in co-pays by having my ART guy here. I’m sure he sees me walking towards the tent and thinks there goes another 10 bucks.
Then we headed over to the Power Bar breakfast. Power Bar has been a generous sponsor of mine since 2003 and this breakfast never disappoints. Of course we enjoyed free Power Bar products, a breakfast, and a goodie bag. Not only that but the hot spotting was almost overwhelming. I couldn’t even drink coffee I was so distracted. Plus the coffee was lousy (which later meant that I went without coffee until 10:15 am – very dangerous state for me). Across from me – Belinda Granger. At another table, Matt Leito, Luke Bell? Mackenzie? Does it matter – can I just say Hot Luke? When Leanda Cave walked in Sherpa Thomas got the chills and started mubling about her long legs and freckles. Lisa Bentley. Faris Al-Sultan. Sam McGlone. TJ Tollakson. Faces I recognized but couldn’t come up with the names. All there.
Afterwards Chris headed out to Hawi with his family for a day long shop and hike-athon. I headed to the Expo with Thomas. First stop – the Tanita scale booth to test our body fat. What fun, eh? The good news is that I am under fat. The good or bad news is that my metabolic age is…12. Turns out Thomas is the same. This means that we can both eat like 12 year olds. Or act like 12 year olds. I needed a scale to tell me that?
I’m not sure I really believe all of the numbers. They told me I was 63% water. Considering I have not peed clear for two days I’m not sure I believe that! I did revel in the fact that my visceral fat was a 1 and Thomas’ was a 2. He was not happy about it and demanded a reweigh. So tomorrow we are starving ourselves until the expo opens so we can get accurate counts. Plus we are desperately trying to fit in. I saw a man today that has smaller hips then me. I’m totally throwing a hamburger at him on Saturday.
Also spent some time at Lava Java today. Normann was there with his enitre entourage. They had their own special flags, signs and tables. I almost felt sorry for the guy. I can’t imagine someone watching me drink coffee or eat a muffin or whatever he was doing. But then again if someone would like to make a sign that says watch the elf drink coffee and put it by me at Lava Java – well as long as the coffee is free, I won’t complain.
I did see Kerrie Wlad at the expo. That chick is pimping her Ironman bracelet like you wouldn’t believe. Bags hanging off her arms, visors, stickers, hands full of free products. She is going home with a plane ticket’s worth of free stuff. I’m not sure what we were doing in this picture but I think we both look like we are saying ARGH in a very pirate like way. But we’re not pirates.
Afterwards I chatted with my St. Louis boys at Lava Java. It’s so nice to see familiar faces out here. Also enjoyed seeing my athletes Barb and Laura from back home. They are hot on the trail for Natascha Badmann. She has been spotted by a friend but I have not sighted her yet.
The boys spotted Terrenzo Bozzone’s bike and I spotted his body. Major hottie bells and whistles started going off. Here’s another one for the Tri Blogger chicks.
Then I walked back to the condo. The day was heating up and a mile walk felt like a marathon. Walking back along Alii Drive you could feel it in the air. The energy. It is starting to build. The buzz is building. The race day nerves are getting thick. It’s out there. You can feel it. Here’s the view from Alii as I walked back.
Kona is a great place to be right now – at the hot spot of triathlon without having to worry about a race. I’ll admit that the oppressive heat and sun every day makes me grateful I won’t be racing out there but there is a part of me that has vowed one day to come back. Because there is nothing else out there like it. There are Ironman courses and then there is Kona. You have to come out here, experience it to see what I mean.
It’s mid-day now and I’m resting. I’m thinking about going to float in the water and look at some fish. Maybe find a few more bucks floating on the ocean floor. Eat some papaya. A few macademia nuts. Obviously I’ve got some serious plans.
