ATHelite

Friday October 31, 2008

The day before my first Ironman. I didn’t sleep well last night, only getting around 5 hrs sleep. Think I ate too much at the carb load meal. Also, I much prefer home cooked food as opposed to mass produced food.

So not quite jumping out of bed this morning, but soon get up after the Starbucks coffee kicks in. Everyone is fighting over the only laptop in the condo. I leave Andrew to work for a while and Pauline comes down to the beach with me for my practice swim. She is still poorly, so will only be walking along the beach while I swim. This wasn’t part of the deal, she was supposed to be coming with me for my practice swims, help keep me calm.

Paolina tells me to do the dolphin dive to get into the water. Okay this has not been on the itinerary and will not be part of the programme, so I proceed to run like a big fairy into the water.

Some guy coming out of the water spots my enthusiasm and gives me a high five. Are you excited he asks me. I say well it’s more than my sister is watching me and I have to even practice my run into the water. Your first time. Yes. The amount of people I tell this is my first time to. So that earns me another high five. I like the friendly and upbeat attitude of many of the people you meet. They are very encouraging.

The buoys have been set up. In fact, these are only practice ones. The bigger ones will be placed in the ocean tonight. Wow, the furthest away buoy you have to swim out to is really far away. I have never done an open water swim in an ocean, let alone of this distance. There is a chop in the water today, sometimes I can’t see the buoys for the waves. And yes, aware of the salt more so now. I feel all alone. There is no one else around me. This is great I tell myself, what else is in here with me I wonder. I start remembering all the movies about open water. Okay happy thoughts, lets start singing.
I turn around, I’m only to do a short 20 min swim, doesn’t matter if it’s a few minutes short.

I’m sure I’ll manage to get all the swim in tomorrow without panicking too much tomorrow. There will be lots of us in the water like one big party. There will be lots of kayakers in the water, boats and deep sea divers. I should be okay . Paolina tells me the first 500m will be the worst, swim really hard. You may get kicked, loose your goggles.
This is seeming overwhelming, so best not to think too much about it. I’m told by sister there will be a big helicopter over the swim too. Wow, lots of drama, I’ll just pretend I’m in a James Bond movie.

So back to condo, wash off all the salty ocean water, before I start itching too much. I finalise my bags to take and check in today. You have to take your bike and bags to the transition zones by 4pm today. I do one final 20 min spin on my bike. Check out everything is working.


The transition zone is all very organized. You place your bike on the rack in numerical order. Place your swim to bike bag in the e allocated zone and bike to run bag in another set zone. Paolina says I look like a deer caught in a headlight. Yes, little trepidation. I want to go back to the condo and lay down and switch off. We do that, there’s nothing else to do here now.

I get to laze around and Polly cooks the last meal, which is what it feels like and Andrew even hold the front page, washes up! Now this I could get used to.So yes, this could be my farewell letter. Mother I love you. Polly and Andrew thanks for all your support this week and throughout. And Mrs ATHelite thanks for your professional advice with running shoes, and encouragement. Mum you’re my mum and I love you so much.Tara, I’m off to bed now as I’m up at 4am!