Down Under--Part 2

I’m back home in Jackson now, trying to get back into the ordinary routine. These first few days have been difficult with the big time change, but I’m hoping that I can back on a regular sleep schedule for the coming week. Let’s pick up where I left off….

Friday

Justin granted an off day for Friday, a chance to continue to rest up for the race. I went with Lori to the registration area for her to start her shift of volunteering at 8:00 am. I went to the race office to get tickets for the welcome dinner and went for a quick walk through the Ironman store. There really wasn’t an expo in the traditional sense, just an Ironman merchandise store that was pretty small. I think back to IM Brazil last year….there were probably 100+ vendors in a HUGE expo. Surprising that the Ironman expos aren’t more similar. But perhaps Busselton is at the far reaches of civilization. I biked back to the apartment while Lori worked.

Lori would end up working at registration, for the lowest numbered athletes. As a result, she got to handle registration for many of the pros. She enjoyed that and recalled that Kate Bevilaqua, who would go on to win the women’s race, was the kindest of all the pros she met that morning.

The parents and I visited an art shop near the apartment and I commissioned a painting of the Busselton jetty as a souvenir. It won’t be ready until February, but it will be nice to hang on the wall with the other Ironman and other race memorabilia. The rest of the afternoon was entirely restful.

Friday evening I went with the family to the pre-race dinner. This was probably the best of the pre-race dinners I’ve attended at the Ironman events. The dinner was held in a large tent across the street from the swim start, in Barnard Park. The food and drink was actually good this time….and the program had the traditional elements to help motivate the crowd for race day. There was even a native dance. Something inspirational for everybody.

Saturday

Lori accompanied me to the swim practice area for a short, 20-minute swim on Saturday morning. Not many swimmers, surprisingly, at 6:00 am. I followed this up with a 40-minute ride, easily, along the multi-use trail from the apartment to town and back. Training was DONE! I would remember for JD that it worked out to 369 days of training to get ready.

Back at the apartment, I gathered up all the gear and we were among the first in line for check-in at 11:00 am. There was light rain then….and there was some light rain off and on for the rest of the day. I can remember thinking that this could be great weather for the race.

We all hopped in the car and headed off to Dunsborough, for a drive along Caves Road. We went to the Serazens Brewery for lunch, but were turned away because we didn’t have a reservation. Not too far away, though, was another pub where we enjoyed a lunch in the backyard of the pub. The setting was nice, but the flies were pretty annoying. I was the first one chased back to the car to seek refuge.

I took a nap on Saturday afternoon and got the remaining gear ready for the race. We had dinner at the apartment and everybody was in bed early for the big day on Sunday.

Sunday

Race day! I can’t remember ever waking on race day feeling more excited about the day ahead. The weather was ideal….mostly clear skies, cool temperatures, and little humidity. At the start there was little wind, but this built to 10-15 mph as the morning went along. Really couldn’t ask for anything more in the weather department.

After getting my bike set up, I spent the pre-race hour with my family at the seawall overlooking the swim start. We talked briefly with Mike Reilly who was here for his 99th race as announcer. He guaranteed a good day.

I’ll save a traditional race report for another day, but I’ll share some of the highlights here. The swim was a lot of fun. Calm seas made for a pretty quick single-lap swim out along 1 side of the mile-long jetty and then back along the other side. I cut my left heel pretty bad on something at the start….and that would have a major impact as the day progressed. The bike was a 3-lap course. I had a pretty good go of things for the first 2 laps and slowed a bit on the third lap. Through T2, it was my best-ever race. Unfortunately, when I hopped off the bike at T2 I could barely walk, my left foot hurt so much. I actually had to be helped into the tent by a volunteer. I tried to make the best of the run, but after a start/stop run/walk for the first 2 laps, I ended up walking (and limping!) to the finish.

It was a long day. I was never better prepared and I had high hopes for the race. I had thought this would be the last Ironman race, but now I’m not so sure. It would still be nice to have a solid day at the races before retiring.

We stopped at McDonald’s (along with many ofther finishers) for a bite to eat on the way home and had a chance to visit for a short while before I needed to sleep.

Monday

Since we elected to leave the bike and gear at transition on Sunday night, we had to return early Monday morning to pick things up. Then it was home to pack, and at about 10:30 am, we left Busselton to return to Perth. It’s not my usual MO, but this time we were doing the 3-hour drive (11,000 miles from home) with no map and no cellphone GPS. We got lost a couple times, but eventually made our way to our motel near the Perth airport.

The folks at the motel made a good suggestion for lunch and we headed into downtown Perth to have lunch at the Lucky Shag, a pub on the Perth waterfront, near the bell tower. It was our chance to sit and talk about the race and reflect on the trip. We all agreed that we’d had a great time. And time had flown by. It seemed like just yesterday that we were arriving in Sydney for the beginning of the trip.

Back at the motel, I re-packed the bike and re-packed all of the gear. The parents napped and Lori and I visited in our room. We all turned in early.

Tuesday

We were up at 3:00 am to make our way to the airport for the long trip home. Our flight to Sydney left at 5:45 am. For the return trip, the travel worked just like the trip down….just in reverse. First to Sydney, then transfer to the International terminal for the long flight to LA. We parted ways in LA and each headed our own way. I returned to Dallas and then on to Jackson, arriving near midnight on Tuesday, but after some 24 hours in a plane plus many more hours of layover time. This was, by far, the longest trip I’ve ever made in a day (or two!).

And that’s how it was….