Friday

It took a frickin long time to get here - over 30+ hours - not including my travels to the east coast, but here I am in Busselton, Australia, ~ 24 hours before the race starts, after having finally slept in a bed and not on an airplane. It's been quite the adventure. Sunday: 8+ hours of travel to the east coast; Monday: 8+ hours back to the west coast; Tuesday + Wed + Thurs: (Lose a day due to the time change): 30+ hours from LA to Sydney to Perth to Busselton.

I'm all registered and now that I have given up trying to go back to sleep because of jetlag, I am finishing up packing my transition bags. This Ironman will be much different than the last 2-3 that I have done (which may be a good thing!) as I have not done much training since IMFL, have yet to ride over 190 watts since IMFL, and have not done a lick of training - nada - since last Sunday, the longest I have gone without doing anything, and certainly the longest I have not ridden a bike, in about 2+ years. I plan on doing a short run and a 1 hour bike this morning just to get moving again. But I have no idea where my fitness is, how to pace myself, or how I will feel during the race.

Right now, I have all the same pre-race jitters as I normally do, but I feel more similar to how I felt before my first Ironman - scared of the distance! - than I do to how I felt before the last two races in IMFL - focused on going sub 10. An Ironman is a long ways, something you start taking for granted when you get in relatively good shape. I'm just hoping now that I can finish without killing myself. So my goal for this race is simply to have fun, and enjoy racing in Australia -- but if I have another 8+ minute transition, I'll be pissed!

Busselton is just like any other Ironman venue that I have been to - a small town with not much going on, far away from any metropolitan area, in the middle of frickin' nowhere. I just happen to be in the middle of frickin' Western Australia, which is very crazy to think about. I saw a dead kangaroo on the side of the road as I was driving here, which made me feel like I was in Crocodile Dundee.

But I am no Crocodile Dundee. As I was flying here, I was studying the map of Australia. There is a place about 1000k north of here called Shark's Bay. 1000k may seem like a lot, but for a guy like me, 1000k is close enough to put shivers down my spine. In in any other type of situation, I get out of the water if there is a goldfish in it.