Ironman 2010-Wednesday

The mornings seem to last forever in Kona. This is a good thing though. We’ve been getting up by 6:30 and taking time to just relax at our beautiful island home with our lovable roommates and friends. We share the inside of our house with cute little Geckos and just outside our window we have the most giant, but lovable cane spiders that we have named Peter Parker. The owner of our place wrote in the house notes that these cane spiders, though huge, are harmless, so it’s easier to look at him clinging to the screen outside our room and enjoy his presence. We also have wild pigs roaming about, wild turkeys, beautifully colored birds and the occasional mongoose. Life on the coffee plantation is good. We’ve all decided this would be the perfect getaway if you just need a place to relax, work, read a book, knit or just be. Maybe we’ll get the opportunity to come back without an Ironman race hanging over our heads.

Eventually Steve, Neal and I had to head into Kona. It’s a different world when we get into town because it’s buzzing with race preparations and crawling with fit and tanned bodies. It’s fun to be down there in the thick of things, but it’s also nice to be able to return to our island retreat. We definitely have the best of both worlds. We went into Kona because we had lots of race related stuff to do, but first Neal had made an 11am massage appointment for me at the King Kamehameha Hotel (the race headquarters). I met with a therapist named Doug Thralls. He’s from Southern California and Neal met him at the Cycling World Championships last year and he’s used to working on athletes and boy, does he do a great job! My shoulders felt awesome when I was done. So good, I’m going back to see him again tomorrow!

After that, I picked up my registration packet, did a short interview with everymantri.com and headed to the water to try out my new XTERRA wetsuit. Neal and I had a great short swim, even though the waves were pretty big and I felt like I was getting tossed around a lot. I’m hoping for some calmer conditions on Saturday morning for sure.

The rest of the day we spent killing time hanging out in Kona before we went to the airport to pick up Roberta. We went to the race expo and then to dinner at the Kona Brewing Company and pigged out! Coach Neal is a bad influence on me because he has as much of a sweet tooth as I do. I can’t even begin to talk about our dessert because it probably isn’t  part of the meal of champions, but I’m just sayin’ a girl needs to stock up on calories before attempting 140.6 miles! It was yummy!!

So, another day down and another day closer to the race. Tomorrow is rest day, Friday is prep day and then it’s GAME ON! More later….