It was undulating, but very pretty cycling along with the red rocks as a backdrop so it didn’t seem like much of an effort. On the way out we had seen a few wineries advertising wine tasting, so we decided to drop in and see what they had on offer. Now I am not sure this was a great idea given that I had been off the booze for quite some time with the exception on Fiona and Andrew’s wedding at the end of September so to now pour 8 ‘generous’ tasting glasses down my neck with a 30km ride home was not the smartest move. Made all the more difficult by the head wind we encountered. It was worth it. We were in there for ages chatting to everyone in there completely decked out in lycra so it was hard to miss us. Was kind of cute when the woman serving us said how much she loved Amsterdam when she went there but had never been to the Netherlands J
The Dutchman had booked us into this beautiful hotel with the most spectacular view in Sedona where we were staying for 2 nights. The first night we went for a beautiful dinner and had the most incredible steak I have ever eaten. It was melt in your mouth cooked perfectly. I am sure I ate my body weight in steak. That was the other thing, I was dropping weight at a steady rate despite eating the same amount (around 2500 – 3000 calories a day) but not training so much. I wasn’t paying too much attention to it at this stage but in hindsight I think I should have.
We went hiking up into the red rocks the next day and encountered a family of Javalinas! They are like small hairy pigs and were out foraging for their breakfast. We hiked quite a long way in so felt like we had earnt ourselves an afternoon by the pool. The pool had the same view as our room and no one there! We had the entire place to ourselves. The Dutchman turned up in these tight little lycra shorts which earnt him the nickname of Eurotrash for the rest of the day.
I went running the next morning along one of the trails whilst The Dutchman hit the road to cycle further north towards the Grand Canyon. I caught him after he had done some decent miles in temps of around 3-5 degrees. The valley he cycled up out of doesn’t get the sun and it was too early for the air to be warm. In places there was ice, but he survived and I took him to starbucks to thaw out.
Arriving at The Grand Canyon and seeing that view for the first time is breath taking. I was in absolute awe. I had flown over it, but standing on the edge looking down into it, I can’t even explain. We were booked into the El Tovar, the oldest and grandest of the hotels in Grand Canyon Village and it was like stepping back in time. We checked in and hit a road that had only been open for 3 days. It was like riding on silk, there wasn’t a bump in it. We rode out to Hermits Rest and I have to say riding in the altitude really takes it toll. A small slope all of sudden is a lot harder to maintain pace.
I took lots of pictures so it took us quite some time to cover the 13km out. We really went for it coming back and we were cruising at 45km hour on the return leg. I was feeling fitter and stronger than any other time in my life.
We watched the sunrise the next day and then jumped on a bus to go out to the path that leads into the Canyon to Skeleton Point which is a 5km hike in, but only halfway to the bottom. It was an easy hike because the path is so well maintained and wide enough you can pass people. We were stopping frequently to admire the view as the path wrapped around and you would get a different vista every 10 – 15 mins. It was very impressive.
We got to Skeleton Point and we were the only ones there which made it all the more special. As we were sitting there another group arrived and we could also see the mules coming up the path.
The hike is advertised as a 6 hour round trip, but we were back in 3 having given the mules a 30 min head start, we soon caught them and over took them in our power hiking back to the top. We caught the bus back and jumped on the bikes. This time we got to Hermits rest in record time and I was feeling fantastic so I upped the pace and really pushed it home. It is one of only 2 times out of the hundreds of rides we have done together where The Dutchman has had to hang onto me and just sit on my wheel. It gave me a great boost mentally knowing I was in such great shape I could even push the indestructible Dutchman almost to his limit.
We got up the next morning and drove to an eastern point in the Canyon to watch the sunrise and it is one of the most romantic moments ever. Sitting there snuggled up with the Dutchman (it was about –2 degrees) watching the sun climb its way over the rim and splash into the canyon. It was like a spotlight being shone on various parts of the canyon and made you focus on the individual points as they became illuminated. In the background we could see the mules making there first trek of the day into the Canyon, following the path we had taken the day before. I took some pictures, but it is almost impossible to capture the beauty and expanse. You can see the mules over the Dutchmans right shoulder in this pic here.
We drove back to Pheonix and went straight to registration where I picked up my very disappointing race pack and my Zipp wheels. The Dutchman had kindly arranged for a set of 404 Zipps to be waiting for me. I decided to go for a spin on them as I had been in the car all day and wanted to stretch my legs out. Against the Dutchmans advice to take a spare I headed out…..only to get a flat 6km out of town. Now what does a chick in lycra do? Well, you want in the same direction as the traffic carrying your bike on your shoulder of course J I was walking all of about 25 seconds and this guy pulled up. Turns out he was doing a reccie of the course and had a 4X4 to fit my bike in the back. He kindly gave me a lift back in exchange for some tips on the course.
We met up with James and Kaisa the next day and they hitched a ride with us so James could register and I could go return my Zipps that had quite a few cuts on the tyres hence the puncture. I have to say, this guy was fantastic. It wasn’t a problem to change them over and he totally understood that I wanted everything to be perfect leading into the race. It was in complete contrast to Tempe Bicycles who were rude and very unhelpful when we returned the Dutchman’s bike. There are plenty of places to hire a bike in Phoenix and I would recommend somewhere like Dominic’s cycles over Tempe bikes.
So the Dutchman was smart and left me to race prep on the Saturday. I had pre warned him that I wasn’t the best person to be around the day before a race so he went off and cycled the 50 odd km’s to the top of Mount Lemmon down near Tucson. I did some more transition training and got my bags ready and then hitched a ride with James and Kaisa to check everything in.
Now to say that Arizona Ironman smacked of making money is an understatement. I was already disappointed with the rubbish registration pack. When I checked into the hotel I got a welcome pack of energy gel, sunscreen, water, energy beans, lip balm and a lovely note welcoming IM athletes and their family and friends. What do you get for $550 with IM Arizona? A free number plate holder and a bag full of flyers. L
I went into transition, got my bike spot and then went to dump my bags. They couldn’t even stretch to get racks to put the bags on or a tarp to protect them from the 33 degree sun. Nope, you put your bags on the ground following the hand written signs. I was beginning to think I had turned up at some Mickey Mouse event.
Feeling pretty good I headed back to the hotel to eat more and chill out. I was reading Ellen Macarthurs autobiography which I was finding very inspiring, exactly what I needed. The Dutchman returned and we had a slight drama when we set the fire alarm off. Problem solved by ripping it out of the wall, throwing it into the hallway and demanding a change of room because of the smoke and some silly rule about not being allowed to open the windows. We got to bed and I had an ok-ish nights sleep.
Cx
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