Kona Day 2, 11 days till the big dance
A 5.30 wake up, couldn’t get back to sleep unsurprisingly. Today was my BT2 day. The first hadn‘t gone well due to a virus last week so I was anxious to get this one done.
Got picked up by Ken Glah’s morning shuttle bus back to his condo for a delicious breakfast of banana pancakes and an omelette. Met some others there who had also booked through Ken, a determined young 18 year old Danish triathlete who was being supported by her Dad. A really friendly Texan triathlete and a Canadian, both men who’ve been to Kona a few times.
We were all shuttled up in a couple of vehicles to Hapuna beach which is about 34 miles from Kailua where the race starts so that we could ride out to Hawi which is in the north and the turnaround point of the race. The winds were insane said Ken so we opted to go in the other direction. He believes that it’s not worth risking anything so close to the race. What race day brings well one has to just get on with it, whereas one isn’t going to gain anything from tackling horrible conditions at this point. I agreed fully! As we were having to loop back to drop Ken’s partner Christine off who was riding for an hour we stopped to say a quick goodbye which is where I suddenly came over very dizzy. Cold water down my back helped but not enough to feel well enough to carry on. I was disappointed but had to be sensible.
So instead I ended up having a watermelon shave ice which is what I’m guzzling in the photo above. I chilled on the beach with Christine whilst we waited for the others and my dip in the waves at Hapuna cheered me up. Think my body needs more time to acclimatise.
The rest of the afternoon I relaxed in my condo with the air conditioning on to recover well. As I felt a lot better I headed out to run on the Queen K highway and was happy with my hour’s run at IM pace.
Photo at the pier on way back from my run!
It was extremely humid as the heavens had opened in the past hour but I didn’t feel uncomfortable. Running along the shoulder of the highway is unsettling due to very fast traffic especially the trucks but at least the shoulder is very wide. A video on safety re training prior to race day has been released in the Athlete guide which I can see is so important here because of where all the athletes are training on a highway and different signs on intersections to what one is used to unless you’re American of course.
Fancying supper out I headed to Splashers, about a 20 minute walk. Kailua was buzzing with tourists and already more and more triathletes are arriving. Opted for the local Ahi fish grilled with steamed veg and rice with a teriyaki pineapple sauce...yum, food is really good here.
Ended up joining a Californian but now local women who was sat next to me on her own and invited me to join her. Got lots of local knowledge from her. The locals here are super friendly.
