As I write this, sandwich in one hand and water in the other, I have had a full and satisfying morning. It started early (6am PST) and I had a good breakfast followed by a drive out to Kailua-Kona where the race begins. My plan was to get in the water for a swim followed by some pictures and then race registration. The streets were filled with athletes as we drove north to Kailua-Kona along Ali'i Hwy. In fact, we drove past THE Chrissie Wellington who was out running. Sadly, I did not get a picture. Then we parked and walked down to the pier. There were IM signs, banners and other parafanelia (sp?) everywhere. It was absolutely amazing. There were also lots of different vendors (Gu, Powerade, etc) with tents set up along the way. One word, "AWESOME." Even my dad mentioned that he could feel the hype. There were close to 100 athletes at the pier when I arrived. I checked my bag into the Gatorade bag check and then proceeded to get into the water. I had on my new TYR Torque speedsuit, which feels so FAST. Athlete attire varied from swimsuit to tri suit to speedsuit. At any given time you could hear a variety of dialects being spoken. I recognized some German, but there was more. I entered the water and began stroking and getting my breath into a rythm while trying to look around for spotting cues like the church, pier, Sheraton, etc. The buoys were useful too. ;) I had read on another blog about the boat that serves espresso and I thought that I spotted it. So I took a chance and swam out to this little sailboat. The blogger was right!! They were serving coffee and dispensing the milk and sugar from fuelbelt flasks. There was even a dog out there. (They gave the dog watered down gatorade.) The company sponsoring the coffee stop was apparently Aqua Sphere. They were also offering free goggles to anyone that would swim down and grab a handful of sand. It was 25 feet and I was not risking my ear drums for that one, so I downed my coffee and swam back to shore. I came out and ended up sitting with my parents at a restaurant before going to registration. While going in line for registration I ran into Robert Killian and we discussed the race (he did Kona last year) before we were weighed in and got our swag bags. Apparently I was in line for close to an hour. After that my family and I headed to the IM store where I bought Carlisle (our miniature Schnauzer) a collar that said "swim, bark, run." So cute! I also bought some other ridiculous stuff. :) Not surprisingly, much of the gear and other merchandise was gone already. Then we walked back to the car and got ready to head to the airport to pick up the rental. We're now back at the condo eating lunch...mmmmm. Some great energy here, and of course some great gear. I'm excited to head back to the IM village this evening and hit up some of my favorite vendors. :)
I just added the picture from registration. The lady that was taking care of me probably thought I was nuts since most athletes were focused on getting their registration knocked out and moving on.
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