Ohana
One more sleep till the big dance...
Well wow. Where has the time gone? The days have flown by here. It’s been an incredible couple of weeks since I arrived here on the island.
As I missed yesterday’s blog I’m going to condense both days into one post.
Yesterday was begun with the underpants run. A tradition at the IM World Champs where the triathletes dress up or should I say dress down into their undies 🤣 Any visitors who are here staying having nothing to do with the Ironman (I have met some) must wake up thinking what sort of strange bunch we were displaying a lot of flesh jogging along Ali’i Drive.
I opted to wear a mini version of my trisuit design, shorts and a sports bra. Didn’t fancy jogging in a bikini!
It was all rather bizarre but very funny!
After the excitement of the morning I popped along to see Alistair Brownlee at Breakfast with Bob. Many are rooting for Ali here and from listening to various pros many think Ali has a big chance of being on the podium here. But will the heat get to him is the big question...
Bob Babbittville, Sophie and I!
Bill, Ken’s mechanic, popped over to check my bike over which was very kind! Quick stop at the supermarket in the afternoon.
The evening was spent at the Ironman banquet followed by the English briefing. There were various displays of Hawaiian traditional dances which were beautifully done and the presentation centred around the theme of this year’s Ironman World Championships which is the Ohana.
“Ohana is an idea in Hawaiian culture. The word ʻohana means family in the Hawaiian language, but in a much wider sense, to include not only one's closer relatives, but also one's cousins, in-laws, friends, race, and other neighbours. The idea is also that family and friends are bound together and everyone must work together and not forget each other.”
My Ohana are my family, my friends in many places, my triathlete friends from various clubs, my coach, my therapists that I see in the UK, the new friends I’ve met here, the incredible generosity of the volunteers here, the locals here who have been so kind.
Today I let my overwhelming emotions go. Think I got caught up amongst the high energy here.
Friday...
When I woke up today I felt more rested but also excited. After a thirty minute check of the bike, a motivating and reassuring chat with Tony, followed by a short run, the second day of carb loading began with a big bowl of porridge, banana and coconut oil.
I was happy to see that my heart rate has now acclimatised to the heat. It was averaging 140bpm on my easy run this morning. It had previously been up at 150 just a week ago.
The rest of the day, up till bike racking, I laid low like a hermit in my air conditioned apartment, listening to...
It did me the world of good to escape the circus of town! I also ate a lot of carbs but kept it simple. Yesterday and today has been approx 200g of carb per day. Taper week around 130g per day.
Packed all the various bags, which seemed rather empty, I took Ken’s 4pm shuttle down to transition where we were all ushered in each having our own volunteer to walk us through transition. It was quick and efficient. I took a few moments to visualise in transition. It suddenly at that moment felt magical being here as for years I’ve only seen photos and images of the race on television whilst turbo’ing on my bike.
Madame Pelle keeling a watchful eye over my bike!
On the way back to my condo I decided to eat at Lava and Java. They were happy to make me chicken, rice and green beans. The heavens opened on my walk home, the forecast is for a mix of rain, drier weather up the coast and some strong winds at Hawi. It is what it is for us all.
I ate a scoop of ice cream whilst waking back and also bought a very large macadamia nut muffin to have back at the condo.
I only ate half of this!!
Time to sleep now. Tomorrow is going to be a wonderful day, I am looking forward to embracing every moment and sharing the challenge with all those other athletes out there tomorrow.
May Madame Pelle give us all a safe passage! “In the Hawaiian religion, Pele (pronounced [ˈpɛlɛ]), is the goddess of volcanoes and fire and the creator of the Hawaiian Islands.“
Thank you to everyone who has messaged and called (or tried to and I’ve not managed to respond!) to wish me good luck 🙏