Friday was a bit interesting weather wise, I got up early to go for a quick swim as I was going to the women's breakfast to listen to Paula Newby-Fraser speak. It was raining fairly steadily while we were swimming, there were lots of folk heading off for a quick ride etc but I had already decided I was just going to swim rather than risk sliding off my bike in the wet.
The breakfast was really interesting (the food wasn't quite normal brekky fare for me, Zarnia and I were disappointed that there was no cereal!!). Paula Newby-Fraser is certainly an interesting person and she talked about how she got into Ironman and then offered up some advice for us for race day. It was all pretty sensible stuff but nice to be reminded of so close to race day, she mainly talked about the fact that we had done the training and to focus on getting to that finish line on race day.
After that it was off to race briefing. That was pretty full on as there was lots to go over by the time you had course briefing, race rules (I was way to scared to be close to another bike after that in case they thought I was drafting!!), medical briefing, support station briefing and the list goes on. But it was good as they made sure you knew everything that you could possibly need to know for race day.
It was still raining as we headed off home to get our gear bags and go down to rack our bikes. When you drop your bike and helmet off you get your own helper who shows you to where you rack your bike then walks you through transition showing you where the swim entry is and where to pick up your T1 bag etc. This was pretty cool as it means you have one less thing to worry about on race day. I had a wee teary moment as I left my bike there. That was making things a little bit real, there's no going back once you hand over the bike! Then off to drop transition bags at the other tent so they could be taken to the correct places for the next day. Picked up special needs bags to get ready for the next day then I headed off to the Jon Acland seminar on 'How to do your best Ironman'. I mainly went along as he has written some interesting articles on Sportzhub and I figured I may pick up a pearl or two of wisdom from him, which I did. Some of the key things I picked up were, start the race as you want to finish, focus on just 50m at a time, 'am I doing the best I can over this 50m?' eg whats my form like, am I feeling good, what do I need to change? He had some good tips about when the race would go pear shaped, he said the first time would be the swim start as everyone charges off, then along the back of the swim when you start to get tired, other times are when you come through town on the bike and the run as the crowd lift you and you forget your race plan and go hard in front of the crowd. Very wise words that all helped the next day and reinforced everything Richard has told me as well. It's nice to have those reminders so close to race day.
Then I headed off to the Orca shop to do a little more shopping, hey I needed running gear that fits and my old stuff will be going on Trademe very soon!
Had a wee nap in the afternoon, Paula and Tanya arrived in town and popped round to say hi. It was lovely to see a couple of friendly faces who weren't race nervous!!
Then time to eat, mmmm lots of yummy mashed potato and chicken followed up by a bowl of ice-cream!!
Geoff and his family arrived a little after 10, so after settling them in I headed off to bed to try and sleep but I was way too excited!! I think I managed about 3-4 hours! Oh well, I have plenty of time to sleep now!!
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