Kona Day 2 Thursday 11th October

14:57:02 o'clock BST
Thursday 11th October
Up at 5am to start getting used to waking up early and got my transition bags ready. We had a cab pick us up and take us to the power bar breakfast where there was around 70 people including Melissa Ashton (top 10 Kona finisher 2 years running), Luke Bell (big name triathlete and Kona winner), Scott Neyedli (IMUK winner), Jo Fenn (British superstar runner), Hillary Biscay, Belinda Granger plus a whole lot of other elite athletes. I also got to meet the head of Power Bar Europe and my contact Zibi who is based in Germany.

Power Bar have been a fantastic support to me and have not only provided loads of brilliant nutrition products but also a funky race suit. It was such an honour for me to be invited to the breakfast and rub shoulders with some of the super stars of triathlon.

The film crew arrived and filmed us having breakfast and me talking to various people. I had a good chat to Scott and got the low down on his IMUK race. Very impressive, I find it interesting that the elites have the same races as the rest of us, just quite a bit faster.

We each got given a power bar pack in a cool power bar bag and loads of free samples including recovery products, gels and bars. The US product is slightly different to the products we get in the UK in that it isn’t as thick and they have loads more flavours in both gels and bars. I decided to try out the gels and found them easier to get down when running. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for them in the UK.

The breakfast was held at the Kona outdoor circle which was up on the slopes so it overlooked the ocean. Beautiful views and it backed onto the Botanical Gardens. a fantastic setting and a lovely introduction to our first day in Hawaii. Thanks to Zibi for arranging our invites.

After the breakfast we headed into Kona to register. I got a bright yellow band put around my right wrist that was to stay there for our entire stay as it had my race number on it and is my entry into everything. Most importantly I paid my $10 to get my race day insurance…. something I didn’t realise I was going to need.

Through registration I got all of my transition bags, race numbers, spectator tickets, bike check in information, maps a free bag, cap, mouse mat and loads of brochures, mostly trying to sell you something.

We wandered into the ironman store and I picked up a few things I needed such as CO2 canisters, a couple of spare tubes and a bento box to store my gels in. There was everything you could possible think of with the IM logo plastered on it from clothing, coffee mugs, posters, an ironman bed (!), jewellery, pens, coffee, photo frames and many many other things.

Registration and the race office were located in the KKKBH, which is right next to the Pier where the race starts. 5 min walk down the road is the expo so we headed down there and ran into Leanne, Dan, Kaisha, James and Steve. It was really hot so I was trying to stay out of the sun. I was feeling a little bit apprehensive about just how hot it was. I was also a little stressed as I had to get so much done on the Thursday and didn’t feel like I was resting, eating or drinking enough. Plus I was tired from only having 4 hours sleep. IM is massive in the US so they had some big brand sponsors including Clinique. Finally someone is realising that women do this sport too! We all picked up some free stuff and the guys made me some cool signs to hold up during the race.

Corinna, Antoinette, Sam and I had lunch on the water and then I headed off to give another interview about how I was feeling pre race. I talked through my race plan and what I wanted to achieve. I then spent some time on the IMUK race stand at the expo talking to Chris and Ally. Chris has raced Kona twice so was giving me some great tips and we agreed to meet at 7am so we could go out for a swim on the course.
After that we met up with everyone for an early dinner and watched the sun go down. I then went off to the race briefing. I have decided I am not going to attend them any more as they are a waste of time. You don’t ever get told anything new from what is included in the race information. I was falling asleep and it took me ages to get a cab back to the hotel so I didn’t get to bed until 10.30.