Birthday in Hawaii
Waking up to the sound of the crashing waves on the reef just outside felt very special. Missing my children but I managed to have a chat with them today and I also received some lovely messages from family and friends.
Caught Ken’s 7am shuttle down to the pier and was greeted by the group singing birthday wishes as I got into the van which was nice.
Just 4 more sleeps till race day. Well actually only 3, I’m behind with my blog! Today I was swimming 3.8km as I’d not had a chance to as yet. Being so busy now with swimmers, I decided to swim wide of the buoys, nearer the shore line, as Karlyn suggests to swimmers she coaches. This is to avoid any head collisions, apparently there are quite a few the week before the race.
Even when I got in the water I didn’t feel that great. I’m not sure why but I felt quite nauseous. Focusing on my technique and sighting I distracted myself from the way I felt and just kept swimming. There were only a few others using the wider route so not anyone to draft off of and in retrospect with there being a swell and chop today I would provably have been better to have swum further away from shore. Anyway, I got it done but it took me 1.14 which is way off my time.
After breakfast at Fish Hoppers, which is where we’ve been having a buffet breakfast each morning as a group, I went to register with some others. No queues, was quick and efficient, the only thing that took a little more time was the paperwork we had to sign. Another sports bag but this one will be shown off back in the UK 😀 filled with various food giveaways, a pair of earphones, a beach towel and various vouchers. Then I browsed around town at all the various tents and got so hot that I found myself at a recovery tent advertising cold therapy recovery boots One puts the boots on which cover both legs up to the hips, they are filled up with icy cold water within tubes and you lie back and rest with them on for twenty minutes. Just what I needed!
Later afternoon was the Parade of Nations from the King Kam hotel along the street where we will start and finish our race. It all feels very near now! There are 168 triathletes representing the UK this year.
Link to a video of the parade...
