Day 3 - Sunday 6th October 2019
The first full day started with a couple of small snacks in the condo, followed by a walk to the pier along Ali’i drive. It was further than it seemed in the car. It seemed further than 1.7 miles. Maybe it was the heat. I didn’t fancy walking there and back every day. Fortunately we had a car, and we soon found a couple of car parks. So there’d be no more walking.
All along the road, there were little plumeria flowers in different colours which fall off the trees. Many people pick them up and put them in their hair. It's a Hawaiian thing. It was so hot. I couldn’t wait to get in for a swim. The entire swim course is permanently marked out, and so many people were down early, getting their swims done. There was a full-distance official practice swim on, but I didn’t feel I needed to swim almost 4000m at this stage. All the work was done. No point tiring myself out. Short swims would be fine.
There were so many fish. Mostly yellow ones, mostly keeping their depth. There was quite a lot of coral. There were also meant to be turtles (honu, in Hawaiian), dolphins, manta rays, the occasional shark, a few eels. I’d settle for benign yellow fish and a turtle… and that was exactly what I got – lots of yellow fish on the swim, and then a turtle close in to shore. It was so cool. I got the underwater camera fired up and took a few photos and videos.
The first full day started with a couple of small snacks in the condo, followed by a walk to the pier along Ali’i drive. It was further than it seemed in the car. It seemed further than 1.7 miles. Maybe it was the heat. I didn’t fancy walking there and back every day. Fortunately we had a car, and we soon found a couple of car parks. So there’d be no more walking.
All along the road, there were little plumeria flowers in different colours which fall off the trees. Many people pick them up and put them in their hair. It's a Hawaiian thing. It was so hot. I couldn’t wait to get in for a swim. The entire swim course is permanently marked out, and so many people were down early, getting their swims done. There was a full-distance official practice swim on, but I didn’t feel I needed to swim almost 4000m at this stage. All the work was done. No point tiring myself out. Short swims would be fine.
I hoped the water was as warm as everyone said it was. Down
the iconic steps at the pier and onto dig-me beach. It was like stepping onto
the moon. It was warm. It was sparkling. It was crystal clear. It was somewhere
fantastic to swim. I took the plunge, intending to swim out maybe 750m and back
750m, making 1500m in total. Then splash about with Deirdre and with the
underwater camera. I had brought a few pairs of goggles to Kona with different
levels of tint. The pair I had today leaked a lot. Which impacted a bit on
the swim. Oh well. Can’t have everything. At least I knew not to use them on race day and at least I had spares...
"That's one small step..."
Swimming out
Swimming back
There were so many fish. Mostly yellow ones, mostly keeping their depth. There was quite a lot of coral. There were also meant to be turtles (honu, in Hawaiian), dolphins, manta rays, the occasional shark, a few eels. I’d settle for benign yellow fish and a turtle… and that was exactly what I got – lots of yellow fish on the swim, and then a turtle close in to shore. It was so cool. I got the underwater camera fired up and took a few photos and videos.
A "honu" (Hawaiian word for turtle) - apparently a sign of good fortune
The wee underwater camera was a great buy
I could have stayed in the water all day but it was time for a decent
breakfast. And time to get out of the scorching sun for a while too. There was energy drink and water on the pier available for swimmers.
We got changed in the shade and then made our way to the Fish Hopper
restaurant, overlooking where we had swum. What a great feed of omelettes and
pancakes we had, and what a great view we had too. And fairly reasonably
priced…
Brunch...
...with a view
Free Kona coffee samples on Ali'i Drive. Shame I don't drink the stuff!
…unlike the gear for sale in the Ironman merchandise tent.
T-shirts for $50, jackets for $150, all manner of Ironman-branded stuff for
extortionate prices. Some of it looked quite nice, but I reminded myself I’d
probably get a few freebies during the time in Kona, and I’d get a finisher’s
cap, t-shirt, towel etc as well. Plus, there would be other cheaper souvenirs
in the local shops. I got the "obligatory" photograph pointing at my name on the wall listing all the competitor's names. It was good to do this now when Kona was still "fairly quiet" - as each day passed, it got busier and busier until the queue at the wall was crazy later in the week - everyone wanted the wall to themselves for their photo...
Funky bike
We headed back via the Kona market and bought some fruit and
vegetables. It was hard work carrying it all back in the heat of the day and we
had to stop a few times. I had to keep reminding myself to drink. I had to keep
on top of my hydration and my nutrition. I had to make sure not to get too much
sun. I had to make sure not to over-do things. I had the Ironman world
championships to do, I had put ten years into getting here, I didn’t want to
mess it all up at the last minute. This wasn’t a “holiday”, this was
“business”!
Then I built my bike up, intending to get out tomorrow for a
spin. Much like today’s swim, I couldn’t wait to set my tyres rolling on the
Queen K and see what it was like. How would the winds be? The lava fields? The
smoothness of the road? The heat? All questions which would be answered
tomorrow…
Customs/immigration/security had opened up the bike box when
it was in transit. I knew this because the locks were secured with different
cable ties. The box has a crush pole which, obviously enough, is designed to
stop the box from being crushed together. The crush pole has to be installed
carefully between the wheel spokes. I hoped when closing the box, the inspector
had taken care not to ping the spokes with the crush pole. I didn’t need a
broken wheel… It was all good and the bike got build without any issues.
With the bike built, we headed off to Huggo’s for dinner and
sunset. The starter was a meal by itself – ribs that pretty much looked like a
whole cow. Before I saw the starter, I ordered extra pasta with my main course.
Shamefully, I could barely eat any of my main course. So I had it boxed up for
tomorrow. Given the good value of the brunch earlier in the day, the dinner
bill of something like $160 was a bit of a shock. So it seemed that brunch out
was a good idea, but going shopping, self-catering and eating in the condo in
the evening could also be a good idea, particularly as we had such good
facilities for cooking, and such nice areas to eat – our living room, our
lanai, and a really nice area down by the pool overlooking the sea.
Dinner with a view
I was fairly appalled that evening to see I had a bit of sunburn on my back and shoulders. I had been pretty careful and used lots of suncream (or so I thought), but after just one day, this wasn't great. It wasn't bad sunburn, just a bit of redness, which must have happened when I was swimming, fairly early that morning. I went to the nearby shop and bought some after-sun, and slathered it on, vowing to be much more careful in future.
When exploring the grounds of the condo complex, we found out there were two pools, one of which was down at the oceanfront. There was a private beach, with palm trees and flame things (see photo below!), and a really nice area for dining overlooking it all. It was all so quiet. It always seemed like we had the entire place and grounds to ourselves. All you could hear was the ocean lapping against the rocks. And it was to that noise that the first full day in Kona ended. I could get used to this…
When exploring the grounds of the condo complex, we found out there were two pools, one of which was down at the oceanfront. There was a private beach, with palm trees and flame things (see photo below!), and a really nice area for dining overlooking it all. It was all so quiet. It always seemed like we had the entire place and grounds to ourselves. All you could hear was the ocean lapping against the rocks. And it was to that noise that the first full day in Kona ended. I could get used to this…
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