Before going to bed last night (and after a delicious Chinese dinner) I reassembled the bike – a task that I’m well practiced at! I managed to get just over 8 hours sleep, which was a good start to the day. Breakfast was a little lighter than the previous day, and afterwards I headed back to the room for some more sleep - coaches orders! After a little reading and an hour of napping, it was time to get my training done for the day. The temperature was higher than yesterday, hovering around 30 degrees C. I’m assured that race day should be much cooler, with the temperature in the low 20’s. Once on the Corniche, I quickly warmed up and started running at a steady pace. The run session was very short, with a few strides just to wake up the legs. Whilst the humidity isn’t high like Hawaii, the air felt quite stuffy. I then jumped on the bike and headed out for a short ride, as much as anything just to check that everything was in working order.
The morning had flown by and it was time for another late lunch, with today’s choice being chicken salad and risotto. After lunch I headed to the temporary bike shop at the race hotel to pick up some CO2 cartridges for race day. There were far more athletes around than yesterday, although it still wasn’t all that busy. Surprisingly I haven’t yet seen a single professional athlete, although in fairness I did skip the earlier autograph signing. I’m sure they’re laying low and preparing in solitude for Saturday.
I’m about to go across the road (literally!) to the race briefing, which is followed by the welcome dinner. It will be interesting to see how this compares to other Ironman events. I have a feeling that it will be fairly low key, but we’ll soon see. Tomorrow will be a fairly relaxed day, with some training in the morning, bike and bag racking before lunch, followed by an afternoon off my feet.
Have a great race, Nick!
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