IMWC 2016 - D-2

Kailua-Kona was blistering with activity this morning. I drove in to downtown early this morning so that I could hit the water by 0630. By that point the downtown core was a beehive of activity. I did a quick 20min swim, which would be the extent of my workouts for the day. I typically like to take Thursday off for a Saturday race but will often do a short swim. On the return trip to the Condo Ali'i drive was very busy with cars heading into town and a myriad of runners and cyclists on both sides of the road.

Military athletes at the 2016 Ironman World Championships!

After a quick shower at the Condo and a few minutes with my feet up, Claudia and I headed back into downtown to attend the Military athlete meet and greet hosted by Ironman. It was great catching up with a few of the athletes and especially Christopher Loose who is from Belgium. I first met Chris at the CISM race this past August in Germany and we also both raced at Wiesbaden 70.3.

Christopher Loose and I.

After the meet and greet, Claudia and I made quick stops at the Roka booth at the expo and then the Bike Works of Kona shop in downtown. After that we headed back to the condo for some down time.

Bongo Ben's takes photos of the athletes that have eaten there during the week and posts the athletes' picture and country they represent on their wall of fame. I'm pointing to my picture on the wall and Mike is being his usual funny self!

For lunch today we picked up Micheal Brown, Race Director extraordinaire (he is the Race director for a few local races near Edmonton including Great White North and is the co-race director for Challenge Penticton and the 2017 ITU Multisport World Championships) and headed back into town for a bite at Bongo Ben's. It's always great being able to catch up with Mike and hear what's new in the triathlon community.

I spent the afternoon mostly with my feet up though I did take some time to clean my bike and make it race ready.

And this evening Claudia and I attended the athletes welcome banquet and the race information brief. We were happy to meet up with Les Friesen from Steinbach, MB who is racing for his first time in Kona.

I enjoyed relaxing for most of the day and starting to get myself in the race mindset. This article from Brett Sutton pretty much sums up how I am planning to race - it's just another race (JAR). I plan to have fun on Saturday and enjoy the experience of racing in Kona.