Kona, Day 3 (Thursday)

Today was a busy busy day.

I wanted to get a swim out of the way, so I woke up at 5:15 to head down to the water. Of course, when I got up it was still pitch black outside. I'm not a morning person, so i forgot that there was a part of the day BEFORE the sun came up.

I had to kill time for a while, then finally went to the beach around 6:15. I expected there to be lots of people training, but there were only THREE PEOPLE in the water. There were a few people milling about on shore, but nobody was getting wet. I was swimmer number four. I guess most of these so-called "champions" would rather just sleep in all day.

After the swim I had to get over to the Underpants Run. I'll post a full race report, but be warned: THERE WILL BE A PHOTO.

I then did a one-hour bike ride along the Queen K highway. This section of the road doesn't have the famous winds, so it was a somewhat pleasant ride. The bike was making my ankle pop again, as it has been doing for the past two weeks. I am still concerned about doing a long ride on it.

Packet pick-up was quick and easy, and then I went down to the Ironman Village. This was a little weird, because the actual official village seemed smaller than other races. There wasn't a lot to see or do there. Of course, this being Kona, the entire town is branded with Ironman sponsors so you can pick up lots of free stuff just walking up and down the street.

We did do one thing at the village. Or rather, Steve did at the Endless Pool booth. Some former masters swim champion lady was giving pointers on people's technique and she invited Steve to give it a try. Steve came up with lots of excuses: "I'm not wearing a suit." "We've got one." "I don't have a towel." "We've got one." I think what finally broke him down was when he said "I've been swimming my whole life" and she said. "Well then you're perfect for this because so many people think they know how to swim but they're stuck with a lot of bad habits."

Steve got served! Oh, it was on, baby.

He hopped in the pool and would swim for a bit, then the masters lady would point out ways he could improve. I rather enjoyed that. Something about pointing his fingers and not sweeping under his body. But to be fair, while he was swimming she was mentioning to the other reps that Steve had a beautiful stroke and good bodyline. So maybe Steve really dies know what he's talking about. Or as Steve pointed out, maybe this lady was hoping to sell some coaching services and wanted to suck up to the swim coach of the Disney Tri Team.

Either way, it was a good excuse for Steve to cool off from the heat.